My 2024 Watchlist Obsession!

Macedonia - the 1800s. An old, burned shape-shifting witch known as "Old Maid Maria" (Anamaria Marinca) makes a deal with the mother of baby Nevena - once she's 16, she'll belong to the witch, and become one herself. Taken over by grief at this, Nevena's mother hides the child in a cave where she grows up feral, and with no knowledge of the outside world. When the witch comes to claim her and take her away, she's frustrated and angered by the girl's wonder at the world she's just now being introduced to. Taking on the guises of townspeople she kills, Nevena (Sara Klimoska) learns about humanity by experience, becoming enchanted by life and what it means to exist in the world. All the while, Maria taunts her and warns her that humanity will turn on her and crush her spirit. After all, it was her own people who took her and burned her many years ago. Can Nevena withstand the pain that comes with the wonder and magic of living a normal life?

Well - this movie was very Terrence Malick. As Nevena goes through life, taking on the form of this person and that (after savagely killing them mind you) she takes the time to lyrically describe what life is like - in that very enchanting Malick way. You'd have to say Goran Stolevski was inspired by Malick's work. What makes it very different is the fact that this is a horror film with so many entrails and so much blood that you wonder where it's all coming from. Why did Nevena's mother keep her cave-bound? I guess she was hoping the witch would never find her - but it backfires. Nevena exits into the world a mute child, and prefers patting animals to ripping their entrails out and feasting on their blood - as witches like Maria do. Watching Nevena "wear the skin" of and shapeshift into various townspeople (who's friends and family then wonder what's got into whoever it is Nevena is being) is one of the highlights of the film. You always feel Nevena is on the verge of being found out - and burned as a witch.

You Won't Be Alone was an enjoyable watch - a real celebration of life and love, seen through the eyes of a complete outsider. The Macedonians are pretty brutal, and life there hard (one woman, after giving birth, is immediately sent back out into the fields to work - not even given time to rest after labor!) But still - life is beautiful and tragic - it's to be cherished. Nevena gets to experience it as both a man and a woman - from many different perspectives, which is the uniqueness of her involvement with this world. These witches can turn into animals as well - anything dead they can possess the form of, which can be used to great effect. This was another in a line of features probably inspired by Robert Eggers' folk horror film The Witch, which provides us with an interesting glimpse of life long ago in a far away place. Life was tough, and often short - sometimes horrific - but worth soliloquising and speaking about with wonder.

Glad to catch this one - Australia's entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, but was not nominated.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch You Won't Be Alone.

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Blackest night. Hungary 1944 - and the dreaded Arrow Cross Party have seized power. War rages across Europe, and a gathering of everyday, unimportant men get together at a tavern to drink and be merry. They aren't occupied by much more than simple survival until a wounded war veteran comes in and poses a hypothetical moral question - one that will eat away at each person there, and one that will suddenly become monumental when they're all arrested and face complicity in the Arrow Cross Party's crimes. The Fifth Seal is an extraordinarily weighty film that's not easy to forget, not easy to watch and asks probing questions of the viewer which might lead to it being a movie that keeps nagging away at the corner of your mind. This is cinema at it's most vital - far from just being entertainment. Something about it that I loved was that it's not here to deliver Fábri's political point of view, but instead just pose those questions that we daren't ask ourselves but really should.

The film is neatly subdivided into three segments, the first of which simply involves all of the characters talking to each other at the tavern, and the second when all of them leave to go home, whereupon we see how each character basically behaves by themselves. The final part is the brutal moment of truth for all of them, when they're picked up and badly beaten before being given an ultimatum. The pace is slow and deliberate, but there's little waste as we're constantly probing and deliberating various principles, coming across differing degrees of right and wrong as each character wrestles with their innate worth and moral fibre. The bar owner Béla (Ferenc Bencze) pays the fascists a steep price to leave his establishment alone, which angers his wife, who thinks it's wrong to be financially supporting such an evil organisation. A patron brings his mistress hard-to-get meat while his wife at home goes hungry. When directly confronted, each man frets as to how good a person he really is.

Thought-provoking and important, I think The Fifth Seal does a tremendous job at giving anyone who sees it much to think about. It's denouement is powerful, and unforgettable, and it's dialogue loaded with searching questions and interesting character-based observations. The performances in it, it's direction and overall make-up are up to the standard they need to be to not distract for a moment from it's sombre tone. Watching it kind of makes the other films I've been watching seem so inconsequential and light. Stands to reason - the people of Hungary had a tough time of it both during and for many decades after the Second World War. Such suffering can sometimes propel artists to go above and beyond in search of meaning and help them in trying to seek a definition of the human condition. I was hugely impressed by The Fifth Seal - it had a great effect on me, and I think it's a great film.

Glad to catch this one - the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Fifth Seal.

I have not yet watched anything from Fabri. I need to fix that eventually

I think that was me. Glad you really dug it!

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Have I just found my newest most favourite movie of all time? Okay, well...no. But still, The Visitor is a treat for someone like me, who likes the unusual and offbeat. Frankly, I don't know how it's flown under the radar the way it has - it has all the makings of a cult classic, and I'm sure it's fan base is still growing as lovers of the unconventional and the peculiar find it. It's 109 minutes of pure unadulterated madness on celluloid - a science fiction film with a low budget that has nevertheless been transformed into a wild and eccentric feature. There are no space ships, but plenty of floodlights. There are no laser beams, but there are many birds. What the film lacks in effects, it makes up for in star power. John Huston, Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, Shelley Winters, Sam Peckinpah and Franco Nero all play major roles in this crazy movie which I think I'm in love with just a little bit. Although it's about an evil space entity being reborn on Earth, it owes more to 1976 film The Omen than it does to any science fiction film of it's day.

Zatteen (basically Satan) escaped from space captivity eons ago and fled to Earth. Taking bird form, the evil entity was fought and nearly defeated - but a small part of Zatteen remained, and is occasionally reborn. Kid Katy (Paige Conner) is the one - basically a brat at this stage, with telekinetic, magical powers. John Huston plays the space rustler tasked with defeating her - he always fights in an indirect manner and with a big smile - and he is super crafty. Lance Henriksen is Raymond Armstead, super rich and tasked with getting Katy's mother, Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail) pregnant, for she has a "magical womb" that has the power to give birth to Katy's space antichrist brother. Glenn Ford is Det. Jake Durham - tasked with finding out how Katy's toy bird turned into a loaded gun which shot Katy's mother in the back, paralysing her from the waist down - the point of which I know not. Shelley Winters is Jane Phillips - the maid. She hates Katy, and has a vague backstory. Mel Ferrer is Dr. Walker - in charge of the effor to get Barbara pregnant by any means necessary. Sam Peckinpah is Dr. Sam Collins - Barbara's ex-husband, and handy at performing abortions. Franco Nero is space Jesus, of course.

In The Visitor NBA games are pretty much decided when the basketball explodes. In The Visitor, Glenn Ford gets absolutely reamed by a foul mouthed 8-year-old girl. That's just the tip of the iceberg - but best of all is the general feel of the movie. Being primarily an Italian production, it has that very specific other-worldly atmosphere you find in Italian horror films, giallo and the like. The performances are all slightly askew to varying degrees, although none of them are particularly bad. It's main feature is the constant surprise - the "what did I just see?" The spinning. The lights. John Huston guiding space orbs using extraordinary facial expressions. Oh - and that score - Franco Micalizzi's constant refrain which hovers between exciting and slightly silly. The bonkers screenplay. The out-there cinematography. Such strangeness, in a film with so many A-listers in it, is hardly ever seen, and usually much talked about. In all my reading on film, I've never come across this for some reason. I absolutely love it - despite my rating. I mean, it's just a lot of fun, and although it's not a great film by any means, I think it beats boring hands down - and would be much fun to watch in a group setting.

Glad to catch this one - it's cult following gets larger and larger as each year passes I imagine.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Visitor.

Guessing at what "Parallel Mothers" might mean gave me an idea that there would be two mothers in this Pedro Almodóvar film (correct) and that their experiences would in some way be identical to each other (incorrect) but other than that I had little idea what to expect. Turns out everything we see relates to a generation of Spaniards who were shot and buried in unmarked graves during the nation's civil war, many decades ago - and that I didn't see coming. There are generations seeking each other, and answers, and closure - and in the meantime there are new stories being written every day. For Janis Martínez Moreno (Penélope Cruz) and Ana Manso Ferreras (Milena Smit) it means giving birth at exactly the same time in the same hospital, and how that accident influences their lives, which become inextricably entwined in a whole variety of ways. Along the way events both tragic and wonderful become part of their generational story.

I haven't been a part of many a discussion about Pedro Almodóvar's work - but I'm getting to the stage where I want to seek out some interviews and discussions to find out about the strange circumstances that cause a man to write and direct so many movies that focus solely on a woman's point of view and on women's issues. Among the nervous breakdowns, 'talking to her', actually being transformed into one against a person's will, nymphomania, all about mothers, high heels, dark habits and The Flower of my Secret - here's a director who has embraced the feminine and built a body of work devoted to the opposite sex. That's a pretty brave thing to go out and do - you need some kind of confidence to speak so intimately on those terms. Parallel Mothers is no less faithful to that complete devotion, with both Janis and Ana single mothers and not at all averse to having same-sex partners. It goes all the way over to a female point of view.

So, did I enjoy it? Yeah, as much as I do a good movie. Almodóvar obviously loved the characters he created here, and if I were to criticize I'd say he had a little too much mercy for them in the ease with which they worked out their problems - seen in context with the grave that's unearthed, I'd have liked to have seen the need for more fight and drama. Still, on the whole there's a satisfyingly large scope, and many twists and turns (unexpected surprises and shocks) that make it an engaging flick at least. Penélope Cruz is right on the director's wavelength, and our eyes are unwaveringly drawn to her whenever she's onscreen - and she had a good deal of needing to dig deep for this role. If you love Almodóvar's work I definitely recommend it - like with most movies, I was hoping it would be extraordinary. Well, it was good - subdued, but bright and meaningful enough to be worth seeing at least the once.


Glad to catch this one - nominated for 2 Oscars - Best Actress (Penélope Cruz) and Best Score (Alberto Iglesias).




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Parallel Mothers.

I may not have the descriptive powers to give an accurate reflection of what watching The Holy Mountain is like - but since nobody has the descriptive powers to relate what enlightenment is like, perhaps it's fitting. Alejandro Jodorowsky's landmark film features a powerful alchemist (played by Jodorowsky himself) who leads a person matching the modern-day description of Jesus Christ and seven industrial tycoons to Lotus island so they can achieve enlightenment and together become one being. How that plays out is Luis Buñuel-like in it's surrealism - in turn making the viewer laugh, be disgusted, and otherwise intrigued by the meaning infused into an ultra-imaginative production and art design that's wonderful. Having a large budget to work with (some thanks go to John Lennon and George Harrison for this - in fact, George nearly played the role of the Christ figure) he wasted no time building fantastic sets and inventing mind-boggling props.

Dealing with the absurd is fun - let's admit it, that's where comedy and laughter come from. So Jodorowsky takes it as his right to play around with the comically ridiculous quite often in The Holy Mountain - but it's never at the expense of what he's trying to say. What is he trying to say? Well, it seems to be he's trying to say everything as an invitation for people to open their eyes and start their own metaphysical journey. Religion, politics, science, faith, philosophy, humanism, the occult, art, commerce, sex, death - liberal amounts of everything are squeezed in, often in a strange, inventive way. Some things are a little too much - the dog fight I didn't like, for it looked real. Some people might have problems with the exploding toads. Things that almost made it into the movie but didn't for various reasons was the cutting up of a real cadaver, a live birth and one scene which was a little too suggestive of paedophilia. Such is a film like this.

I thought The Holy Mountain was a fitting work of cinematic panache from someone of Jodorowsky's stature and mind. It's not the kind of film you can enjoy in any normal sense - you can't see where it's going, or anticipate any narrative developments - but as art, and as something beautiful that speaks to our inner contemplative mind it's worthy of great respect. If I'd seen it when I was younger, I'd have probably laughed at it - but now I laugh with it, because The Holy Mountain encourages us to laugh. It also encourages us to see. It's a kaleidoscope of visual symbolism, playing with nearly every belief system there is and redefining them. It's exciting to see our attempts to find the meaning of existence itself churned up, turned over, and given visual expression in this remarkable piece of work. It's the first Alejandro Jodorowsky film I've ever seen (I saw that documentary - Jodorowsky's Dune - a must see that) and I'm intrigued by how playful and inquisitive he is.

Glad to catch this one - fun fact : Before filming began, director Alejandro Jodorowsky spent a week without sleep under a Zen Master's direction and lived communally with the film's cast for a month.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Holy Mountain.

An early road trip movie - here we have extrovert Bruno Cortona (Vittorio Gassman) and introvert Roberto Mariani (Jean-Louis Trintignant) meeting, and slowly becoming good friends. (So strange seeing Jean-Louis Trintignant this young.) Bruno kind of sweeps Roberto up, and drags him out for a drive which ends up covering a fair bit of distance and as such we see much change of scenery. We kind of get to see the whole spectrum of Italy in the 1960s - during the economic boom known as the "economic miracle" - and the people who populate it. Today, we'd call it a bromance - the two become inseparable and the uptight Roberto tries to loosen up and take the dubious advice Bruno keeps handing out. It's hard to ascertain whether Bruno is one of life's winners or losers - he personable, gets on well with the ladies, is outgoing and has a lot of fun. His ex-wife though, feels sorry for him - perhaps because he's directionless and ultimately alone. Seems like this friendship is something both guys need.

I liked how throughout the film we can hear the thoughts of the quieter Roberto - all of the indecisiveness and worry, though I don't blame him - Bruno is a bit like a human tornado and you'd have to be a bit hesitant to go with him. Yeah, he's funny in that boisterous Italian way - though Gassman's hyperactive energy reminded me a little of Roberto Benigni, who is an actor I'm never sure whether I like or dislike. The kinetic frenzy of the film makes for lively viewing - Italians have a love of cars which transferred over to Australia, and the little Lancia convertible sounds great powering down the long roads, overtaking other vehicles, with Bruno interacting with just about everyone he sees. "Il Sorpasso" means overtaking in Italy, although it has a deeper meaning than just overtaking someone in your car - it means to get ahead of someone in all areas of life, in other words to do better than the guy next door.

A funny thing friendship - at first it looks like Bruno is going to drag Roberto places he doesn't want to go, but a bond develops between our two protagonists and deepens as the movie progresses. Bruno and Roberto manage to pack a few years into a couple of days with the sheer eventfulness of their drive. They both visit family, and as such both get to know a lot more about the other. I liked the dynamic. It reminded me a lot of the one in Alexander Payne's Sideways, as it mirrors the odd-couple pairing of Miles and Jack in that film, which may have been directly inspired by Il Sorpasso. It took a long time for this film to be rereleased in the U.S., but I think Payne saw it regardless, on a scratchy VHS bootleg. Now, it's well-regarded and part of the cinema landscape worldwide, after not even existing for such a long time to most of us. A very enjoyable romp that explores the good life, freedom, friendship and tragedy.

Glad to catch this one - # 707 on the Criterion Collection, and included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Il Sorpasso.

Voices down the drain in the kitchen sink, banging at night - a missing neighbour. Three things which combined spell trouble (well...the first one spells trouble alone) and on a quiet street in Buenos Aires there is paranormal trouble brewing. A mother loses her son, and then a while later his rotting corpse comes back from the grave - stumping police. A woman dies a death of unspeakable violence. Entities are captured on film. It looks like a great case for 3 Argentinian paranormal investigators who are hunting something specific - an unspeakable threat to human life, coming from somewhere beyond our imagination. Demián Rugna has made a film here that lacks a little cohesion, but nonetheless is full of really effectively spooky scenes. The horror effects are pretty good - with only the odd CGI effect failing to really make the grade. I'd say the screenplay needed a little more work - but there's fun to be had here.

Sometimes the spook factor in a film comes from simplicity and great dialogue. There's one scene in Terrified where the rotting corpse of a boy sits at a dining room table while two detectives confess to each other some of the strange things they've seen happen over the years. It's a great moment, and really effective without having to do anything outrageous. Is the corpse going to move? We're kept in complete suspense. Likewise the various ghouls that populate the film look the part and are effectively scary. All the while, we barrel down at a terribly rapid pace (I think I've got used to much slower movies over the past week or two) and flit from situation to situation and house to house. In the end three investigators will take a house each to explore during the same night - all the while leaving Commissioner Funes (Maximiliano Ghione) free to lend a hand as he sees fit. We basically see the events of this night from his point of view.

Every time I watch a horror film I'm hoping for the absolute best - so it's pretty common to feel a little let down when one doesn't meet those high expectations. Terrified falls down a little because as a whole it doesn't fit neatly together - the narrative jumping all over the place, and conclusion unsatisfying. The explanation as to what's happening in the film (sometimes horror is best left without one) is extremely perfunctory, and brief - at the same time diluting a little of the movie's power. A shame, because the scenes themselves are really well directed and work a treat. Most of them fully deserve to be in a better movie. Sometimes films suffer from budget cuts, or else a director-screenwriter is locked out of the editing suite - and sometimes it's just that the screenplay itself needed a tweak. On the positive side though - Terrified is still a blast to watch, and features plenty of extraordinary moments horror-wise - so many that it's really worth seeing. At least the once.

Glad to catch this one - In December 2018, it was reported that Guillermo del Toro intended to produce a remake of the film for Searchlight Pictures - but there's no sign of that.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Terrified.

Frances Ha is the type of film that ordinarily wouldn't get this high a score from me, but I was so swept up in it's central character and the way she both lives her life and communicates, that I had to. And that's before I even get many of the references in it that went way over my head (I've never seen Mauvais Sang, so any recreation of any of it's scenes went by unnoticed this time around.) No, I was into the rich characters, of which Frances Halladay (Greta Gerwig) is one of the most infectiously likeable and fun I've seen in a long time. Up-front and honest, deadpan and funny, intelligent yet ditzy, she's a walking lifeforce who makes everyone around her look just a little mean, a little too serious, and a little less wonderful. Frances doesn't have it together - she's unsure of where she's heading in life, unable to even start a relationship and a little lost in the here and now. She's very much her own individual though, and that counts for everything. This film is simply a slice of her life, at age 27 - working as a dance instructor and hopeful apprentice, cultivating important friendships.

Noah Baumbach was skirting the mainstream. I really liked The Squid and the Whale when it came out - it was made on a $1.5 million budget and managed $11.2 million at the box office. Frances Ha cost twice as much to make and took in the exact same amount. I have a soft spot for While We're Young as well (Baumbach's budgets trended upwards dramatically after Frances Ha.) I'd have to say though that perhaps Frances Ha is the best film he's made, even including Marriage Story. It's a kinetic rush of a movie, photographed in beautiful black and white with an amazing soundtrack and a fantastic performance - I loved it, and I've become a Greta Gerwig fan overnight. This film is the gateway to having a true appreciation for her as an actress (all of her Oscar nominations have been for writing and directing) - an appreciation I have now. (I also liked White Noise - it inspired me to read Don DeLillo's novel. I like it a little less now I have read that brilliant piece of work, but still...)

So, I've finally seen Frances Ha - a big omission rectified. I think most of us can relate to it's central character - full of uncertainty in her 20s, but at the same time overflowing with life and energy. It was released on Blu-Ray over here on Umbrella's "World Cinema" label, which is really weird considering it's an American movie. I guess America is, strictly speaking, part of the 'World' - but World Cinema usually means foreign language films and the like. In any case - it's arthouse credentials are upheld by that fact alone. If I knew more about French New Wave films, I'd have spoken about all of the little nods and homages to them, along with the direct references and such. This film was made very deliberately in French New Wave style - but absolutely works for someone like me regardless of whether I can directly see that influence. It's just a terrific movie. I'll get it on Criterion eventually - if I won the lottery there'd be an influx of Criterion DVDs and Blu-Rays on a massive scale. Until then, I'll just enjoy what I can!

Glad to catch this one - #681 on the Criterion Collection and Greta Gerwig was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Frances Ha.

I might lack the ability of convey all that's great about The Spirit of the Beehive, but it made me feel like I was experiencing the childhood particular to this movie. It's because it's such a quiet, visual movie that allows you to explore it's locations in detail and also gives you time to think, and ponder how it relates to your own life. The plains and plateaus, and the rugged dry beauty of the landscape and decrepit architecture around the area of Segovia, Castilla y León - it makes for a fine backdrop. The movie begins with a travelling movie show giving the locals a chance to see Frankenstein for the first time - and the way it captures the imagination of the children, especially little Ana (Ana Torrent), is of great proportions. I had similar movie experiences at the same age, growing up in the era when Jaws and The Shining were first released. I'll never, ever forget going to see those movies, and how deep of an impression they made on me. That night Ana's sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) tells Ana she can talk to the spirit of Frankenstein's monster if she closes her eyes and calls him.

I remember the boundless exploration that would go on when I was a kid - I was reminded by the sense of scale we get from The Spirit of the Beehive's cinematography. This film adds the pathos of war to the aura of growing up - Ana helps a young soldier during the Spanish Civil war when he hides in an abandoned property she and her sister sometimes visit. The year is 1940, and Franco's fascists have defeated the Republican forces who dreamed of a different nation. So, this lone man hiding from Franco's soldiers must fear death if discovered - but all Ana knows is that there's someone in need relying on her, and she's getting, through experience, her first impression of how the world works by what happens next. This all comes to us in dream-like, quiet, moody visuals with hardly any dialogue. I think it's really beautiful - and I have to emphasise that, because maybe I use that word too much. It's gloriously beautiful, the way the film dreams it's dream - in such a soulful way, as if pictures were words.

Ana runs away from home - as I would sometimes do in impetuous fashion as a small child (I had no idea of where I was going to go.) Here we get a recreation of some scenes from Frankenstein, and I'm again struck by how this film gets right inside the mind of a child. Like I said earlier - it's not easy for me to say exactly why. Adults do intrude, and we do hear dialogue - Isabel and Ana's mother, Teresa (Teresa Gimpera) writes to a friend, isolated by the war, and their father, Fernando (Fernando Fernán Gómez) teaches them how to spot poisonous mushrooms. But it's the hazy, moody, dreamscape of many vistas and the other various sights and sounds that transport one to a magical place. This is such a hypnotic movie - and everything about it feels exactly right. It's a minds-eye point of view that elicits feelings and emotions you never even realised were there. It's a record of a time and place when childhood was both magical and shattering - told near the end of Franco's reign. It's absolutely unforgettable - and a no-doubt masterpiece. A great work of art.

Glad to catch this one - #351 on the Criterion Collection and is in Stephen J. Schneider's 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch The Spirit of the Beehive.

You have a very good and varied taste in film Phoenix74.

I really liked The Spirit of the Beehive. Ana Torrent was such a marvelous presence. She carried the movie on her tiny shoulders.

Sometimes our loved ones suddenly die on us, leaving no time for confessions, goodbyes or last requests. In After Love it's Mary Hussain (Joanna Scanlan) who has to deal with the fallout from her husband's death, which has her traveling to France to meet Genevieve (Nathalie Richard) - his secret lover. What follows is a tale of deceit, grief and jealousy with Scanlan the prime factor in the movie's success - the camera hardly ever leaves her face throughout the film, as she digests her husband's secret life. Her grief is compounded and confused by everything she learns. Mary though, is learning all that she is by pretending to be the cleaning lady she's mistaken for when she arrives at Genevieve's doorstep - infiltrating the home of the 'enemy' and uncovering more than she ever expected to find.

After Love is interesting, because our central character is your average white British lady who has converted to Islam - which immediately had me curious. She's really embraced her role, and is pretty devout. It's another point of difference when she meets Genevieve, and adds to her mystery. Underneath that though, she's a kind of sad character. Genevieve doesn't know that Ahmed (Mary's husband and her lover) is dead - and keeps expecting to hear from him, all the while Mary skulks here and there, too afraid to drop any bombshells, and too intent on learning more. Joanna Scanlan is fantastic in this movie, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more of her (I remember her part in Girl with a Pearl Earring, a film I watched recently.) After Love is absolutely her film, and it's amazing how she lets us into her mind just though the way she expresses herself physically.

Bad decisions - pretending to be the cleaning lady is a shocker, and that's not even the worst of it. Mary goes and does things (with good intentions mind you) which'll make you scream in horror. It makes for a good film though - all of the repression that goes on has to come out eventually, and when it does you know it'll be explosive. After Love also has some nice visuals, with a recurring motif the white cliffs of Dover - which at first seem to represent the dividing line between Ahmed's secret life and his married one. It's a pleasant, probing drama - Aleem Khan's sole feature-length film to date, and I'd have to assume he has another in the works, despite the time period that has elapsed since he made this. It was to play during the 2020 Cannes Critics' Week, but along came the coronavirus, which scuppered that. It's a fine film.

Glad to catch this one - Joanna Scanlan won a Best Actress BAFTA, and Aleem Khan was nominated for his direction.




Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch After Love.

If you haven’t see Cria Cuervos, you should.

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It's a lovely film and as you say Joanna Scanlan is really great.

Put it in my watchlist. I only know her from really funny comedic rôles.

Thank you for the recommendation. I looked it up and watched the trailer and it looks really good. 100% on RT.

Better than Beehive, but who’s judging. Seen Cria innumerable times.

Judging by all the awards it won and the reviews it does sound like a worthwhile watch.