At the end of MIDSOMMAR, our much put-upon heroine, Dani (Florence Pugh) smiles. It’s her first real smile of the film, and how she got there is a tale of bucolic splendor, ecological harmony, and psychic terror. Brought to us by Ari Aster, the iconoclastic mind behind HEREDITY, it finds in parable and metaphor the… Read More »
SAMI BLOOD — Amanda Kernell Interview
SAMI BLOOD is the first Swedish film in the South Sami language, the language of that country’s reindeer-herding indigenous people of the north. Amanda Kernell, part Sami herself, realized the enormous responsibility that comes not only with that, but also with accurately representing the racism that sent the Sami to enforced boarding schools where they… Read More »
A MAN CALLED OVE (En man som heter Ove)
When we meet the title character of A MAN CALLED OVE, he is having a very bad day. Squabbling with shop clerks, policing his neighbors regarding littering and pets, and being fired at almost 60 from the job he’s had since he was 16. Ove’s face is a study in dour dyspepsia, and his attitude… Read More »