It’s time to shine a light on some recent films you need to add to your watchlist…
You took the kids to shout “Chicken Jockey” and trash screen one at your local multiplex. Maybe you took them to see Lilo & Stitch. A week after release and with great word of mouth, you went to see Sinners. Great, well done you. Every season in cinema is filled with some great money churners and some not-so-stellar films which generate cash like [insert your most maligned politician) generates hot air. Then there are those wonderful gems which slip below the radar.
Normally, finding a home on boutique streamers or indie cinema chains, but generally bypassing a wider audience who would get a genuine kick out of them, that’s where Flickering Myth comes in, to shine a light on them. Or maybe we should shine the light on Tom Cruise and his Final Reckoning as it, somewhat sadly, struggles to break even, but they did spend an unfathomable amount of money on it…But no, this list is filled with plucky underdogs or select cuts from overseas that haven’t struck the same chord as Parasite (for example). Here are eight great recent films you probably haven’t seen, but should…
The Girl With The Needle
Magnus von Horn’s exquisitely shot but brutally bleak Danish drama made a big splash throughout the Awards season just gone, not least scoring an Oscar nomination for Best International Picture. Of course, among arthouse and indie fans or lovers of World cinema, it’s captured a few viewers, but not nearly enough.
A young and destitute pregnant woman in 1919 (Copenhagen) starts working at an adoption agency with the kindly Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), with the promise that her child will get a better life. She then helps run the agency and gives new homes to babies when her missing husband turns up, horribly deformed after the war. Dealing with his reappearance, she also uncovers a horrifying truth. It’s a tough watch, but it’s also gripping. Vic Carmen Sonne delivers an incredible performance, telling us so much with very little dialogue. It’s now part of the Mubi catalogue, and well worth the uninitiated grabbing the free trial, almost always on offer for new customers (Mubi aren’t paying me, but I will never say no…) to give this a watch.
Bound
Fleeing an abusive Uncle and leaving behind her addict mother, Bella starts a new life in New York but is hit by obstacles at every turn. Initially turning to petty theft to survive, she soon starts encountering a group of people who help her find her feet and find some joy in her life…but her past will soon collide with her present.
This gem from Isaac Hirotsu Woofter is very much the little film that could. With a splash at some indie film festivals and great reviews, it represents the right way to make an indie film on a low budget, by telling a compelling and sincere story. Woofter’s deft direction aside, the cast is uniformly excellent and leading lady Alexandra Faye Sadeghian is a revelation. US viewers can see this on a variety of platforms, with other territories hopefully on the way. Read my full review here.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
You know the type of film that plays at small indie cinema chains and usually has a few pockets of people over 50 in their late morning/early afternoon showings? Yeah, if they don’t star McKellen or Broadbent, then some beautiful (if dreary) British countryside can usually get the Silver surfers out for a watch too. However, The Ballad of Wallis Island really is an unequivocal delight that should be attracting a wider demographic range. This is the kind of beautifully bittersweet dramedy that the Brits probably do better than anyone. Nuanced, beautifully crafted and sincere characters and some dry British humour and at their best, never taking the path to a perfectly rosy ending.
Whether it’s Brassed Off or The Full Monty, the Brits reign supreme at this type of thing. We excel at sweet as all hell and melancholic demi-musicals like Once and Sing Street. Which is where The Ballad of Wallis Island comes in. A long gestating passion project, dreamed up by Tom Basden and Tim Key (that’s Sidekick Simon to Partridge fans), was first a short movie before finally being remade as a feature (and I should wager largely thanks to the participation of Carey Mulligan as the ‘name’ talent).
Basden and Key, as well as co-writing the film, are the two leads with a lottery-winning recluse (Key) spending a wild amount to get his favourite musical duo (long split) to give him a private concert on his remote island home. Basden and Mulligan are the former lovers and musical muses who’ve spent almost a decade apart, awkwardly thrust before each other. Cue plenty of awkward British moments, dry humour and lots of tugs on the heart strings. For this to work as well as it does, though, the music numbers need to be good (like Once, for example), and Basden, who wrote the songs, performs them brilliantly, as does Mulligan as the harmonising songstress he still pines for. If you cannot enjoy this, you cannot enjoy kittens, beer and candy, you joyless fiend. It’s a great film and the cast is fantastic. Check it on the big screen if you get a chance.
Crossing
Released last year to wide critical acclaim, Crossing is about mismatched travel partners. A Georgian teacher learns her estranged Trans niece has crossed the border into Turkey to become a sex worker. Aided by her listless young neighbour, who wants to start anew in Turkey, she travels over in search of her lost niece. They cross paths with a Trans human rights lawyer, facing difficulties at every corner and the threat of being penniless in a new country.
With intriguing characters and relationships, Crossing finds great moments of joy among the trying times. It keeps us guessing as to where the film is heading, as well as offering an insight into the attitudes toward a maligned community in Turkey. Gritty and simple filmmaking makes the settings live and breathe and come to life, filling the frame with authenticity. Mzia Arabuli’s performance as the Aunt yearning to repair her long-damaged relationship is incredibly layered. Another that’s now a Mubi staple.
The Last Showgirl
Pamela Anderson’s recent renaissance is a joy to behold. Oft maligned as an actress during her heyday, her left-of-field return to screens in The Last Showgirl deserved a lot more coverage than it got. She still walked away with a deserved Golden Globe nomination, however, and finds herself as the leading lady in the upcoming Naked Gun reboot (opposite Liam Neeson).
There were whispers and mumblings prior to the Oscars about the prospect of Anderson getting a nomination, but there’s only so many redemptive performances the Oscars can allow for (and Demi Moore rightfully got ahead in the queue). The Last Showgirl, from Gia Coppola, is a very good film. A real low-key indie drama, shot nicely on 16mm, which brings its own character. It’s short and to the point and absolutely filled with sincerity. Anderson is sensational, and she genuinely shocked critics with how good her performance is. This also gives Dave Bautista an all too rare, contoured role to play and show once again that he’s the best ‘actor’ to have come from the world of suplexes and body slams. Again, it’s on Mubi, and no, I’m not on their payroll.
On Falling
If you want sincerity and a film born of real experience, that is beautifully observed, then check out On Falling. Don’t drop your glass, but this one is NOT on Mubi. It’s on the BFI player. Joana Santos stars as Aurora, a Portuguese migrant working as a factory picker in a warehouse not unlike what an Amazon warehouse might be like. Point is, she has a live to work existence doing simple but dull night shifts working under the careful gaze of a pick-stick scanner that tracks her speed. It’s impersonal, not paying enough in a cost-of-living crisis, and it will ring true to anyone who has done shift work jobs, retail or anything low-paid where the emotional welfare of staff is secondary to hitting targets.
Written and directed by Laura Carreira, On Falling is incredibly well-made and immersive. Aurora’s loneliness isn’t merely born out of her working life either, or the often closed-off nature of flatshare living, but her inaction to remedy her situation. Santos’ is the very definition of nuance here. A mesmerisingly real and quietly heartbreaking performance.
Bring Them Down
Another film that is currently on a streaming channel for poshos and monocle-wearing Letterboxd users that I keep mentioning, but that doesn’t pay me, is Bring Them Down. As part of a Barry Keoghan selection. Barry K has really become a front-and-centre man of the moment. He’s in a lot of films, some of which are good and some which have been at least intriguingly crap (Hurry Up Tomorrow). There’s possibly a danger that Keoghan starts becoming a little bit too one-note playing quirky oddballs or edgy outsiders (or a combination of both).
That doesn’t mean he still isn’t compelling in the right film, and Bring Them Down is just one such example. A slow burning, brooding and lingering flame creeping toward the powderkeg that doesn’t go entirely the places you expect either. In fact, for a film with marketing that might suggest a blood-soaked revenge tale is coming, it could frustrate those wanting something more rudimentary than what we do get. Keoghan is very good, but Christopher Abbot is the MVP on this one.
Cloud
Maestro of psychological horror, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, returns with his latest, Cloud. Much like Pulse and Cure, his most famous chillers, Cloud has a great concept. An online seller’s unscrupulous dishonesty has garnered him more than a swathe of negative feedback. He’s accrued a group of vengeful ex-customers who’ve either bought shoddy goods from him or been manipulated to sell their goods to him for cheap (so he can resell for a big profit).
Here’s the ingenious part of Kurosawa’s film. Although Ryosuke is underhanded, he’s painted as a fairly simple and unmalicious man. Misguided and naive might be a better way to describe him. He knows he’s wrong, and he should know better, but he can’t fathom just how much damage he’s doing to build his business and keep his girlfriend happy.
The film is slow-burning and probably a bit too slow in the opening half, but it shifts from something a bit more cerebral and chilling to a straight-out and violent survival thriller where it kicks into gear. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way. It’s not Kurosawa’s finest hour by any means, but it still has plenty to keep you on the edge of your seat. It’ll also make you wonder if a revenge cult might be a good way to get back at the eBay sellers who fleeced you good and proper.
What’s your favourite recent film which deserves more attention? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
