October 2025

The Limehouse Golem
Directed by Juan Carlos Medina
Starring Douglas Booth, Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy
Release 2016
Running time 109 minutes
Rated MA 15+
 
The Victorian period is often depicted in film as a time of scandals and horrors, rampant with crime, fallen women and abject poverty where smart detectives outwit the criminal elements in a burgeoning police industry. The Limehouse Golem is a gothic theatrical melodrama that contrasts the fears of the plebs with the intellect of the Victorian police force.  Set in a Victorian theatre, convincing performances are all part of the plot.
 
The Victorian idea of crime was tied to morality as much as actual issues like poverty, and there is a lurid fascination with female criminals and victims both. The Victorian period was also fascinated with aberrant sexuality, and this film explores the liminal edges where gender roles and stereotypes are played with and exploited as entertainment.
 
The film opens with a theatre production that offers to tell its story backwards, an interesting conceit that suggests corrupted innocence and an unfair end. The film then segues into the real performance of Elizabeth Cree, also known as Little Lizzie, the subject of the play. She has been charged with the poison murder of her husband John Cree and is questioned on the stand. She comes to the attention of Inspector John Kildare, who has been scapegoated into solving the London murders attributed to the “Limehouse Golem”, for which John Cree is a suspect. Lizzie's time is running out, and Kildare needs to prove John is the Golem if he is to save Lizzie from a swinging end. Interspersed in the plot are real life characters – Karl Marx, George Gissing and Dan Leno – who represent disparate aspects of Victorian cultural life. The court case reveals Lizzie’s history, her upbringing with her poor unmarried mother on the docks of Limehouse, her childhood employment making sailcloth, and her eventual rise as a theatrical star, when she falls in with Dan Leno and his music hall troupe.
 
With both Lizzie and Dan Leno performing in drag, the film plays with subversive gender performances and expectations, but also it explores how the pretence of conventionality is double-edged, allowing Dan Leno to masquerade as a woman on the stage and a respected man in the streets, but denying Lizzie that same respectability because of her gender and her past. On the surface, the story explores the demise of a woman who rises to success by cultivating popularity, exploiting opportunities and through sheer hard work. Beneath the surface, however, is a story about power and deception.
This isn’t apparent at first. Kildare's determination to pursue facts rather than morality, creates a subnarrative of victimhood and injustice. In this respect, he misses the mark, or rather, he has been led down the path he was meant to follow. At the end Kildare understands the craft of performance is the ultimate power, one that our protagonist plays the long game to achieve. 
 
 Something is missing in this film, it wants to make Lizzie the victim, by making Kildare so determined to redeem her, and doesn't do justice to exploring the dark motivations that inform the protagonist's actions. The film is clever in its narrative construction, beautifully shot with its evocative Victorian combination of thickly applied pretence over drab reality. It challenges the usual conventions with its twist at the end. But the real meatiness of exploring character and motive is passed over in favour of a clever storyline, and while the acting is good, the characters are not as complex as they could be. Instead, it fits firmly in that early detective genre, focusing on the intellectual prowess of the detective, even though the fame of the criminal is the ultimate goal.
 

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September 2025

The Fall
Directed by Tarsem Singh
Starring Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Marcus Wesley, Justine Waddell
Release 2006
Running time 117 minutes
Rated MA 15+ with Strong violence
 
Imagine a film that is as beautiful as it is fantastical, a story so vivid in its imagination that only the most exotic landscapes can represent it. Such a movie is The Fall. Directed by Tarsem, The Fall is an exploration of the power of storytelling and the actions of the anti-hero. It touches on both the moral ambiguity of someone facing unfortunate experiences and the redemption that comes from innocence and connection.
 
Set in the early 20th Century, the main characters are Roy and Alexandria, both injured by a fall. Roy is a movie stunt man who fell while jumping from a bridge, who is now in hospital with a broken back and a broken heart. We are introduced to him by another, the child Alexandria, who has also fallen while picking oranges with her family in the California orchards and is recovering with a broken arm. She has freedom of the hospital and visits the bedridden Roy, who tells her of her illustrious namesake, Alexander the Great, and promises to tell her an epic story if she returns tomorrow.
 
Roy begins to weave a tale of five heroes, led by a mysterious masked bandit, and their joint pursuit of revenge against the wicked Governor Odious. As Alexandria becomes more invested in the story, we see the characters take shape from the people around her. But Roy has an ulterior motive in telling his tale; he convinces Alexandria to steal medicine from the pharmacy so that he might put an end to his troubles. He nearly succeeds in this endeavour but when Alexandria becomes significantly injured after he asks her for morphine, he confesses that the story was a fraud. Alexandria begs him to finish it, and now, just as he revealed his betrayal in real life, so too does he betray his heroes in his story. Alexandria inserts herself into his fictional narrative and begs him to save her and himself.
 
The relationship between Roy the storyteller and Alexandria the listener is intrinsic to this narrative. In the beginning, she takes the story at face value, whereas Roy inserts himself in the narrative as the masked revenger. Roy’s epic tale is a reflection on his present predicament, a kind of wish fulfilment against his incapacitated state. It is Alexandria who creates the imagery to Roy’s story, informed by her understanding and experience. This is seen early on when she interprets one of Roy’s heroes, the Indian who avenges his squaw, as a continental Indian in a turban. As she creates the details in her imagination, she becomes emotionally invested in this telling, and when it is apparent that the masked bandit is in danger, she becomes the hero, wearing his costume and his mask to become someone that can make a difference.
 
The visuals of this film are magnificent. Shot in over 20 beautiful locations, the director has used the settings to drive the fantastical narrative. The wide shots give the locations an exotic allure, the camera tilts and pans create an illusion of movement and magnitude that portray the epic nature of the story. The costume design is lush with the use of bold colour. But in between these lavish elements are the moments of symbolism and connection; the mask worn by the bandit, the false leg, the objects that cross between both worlds informs us that the story is not simply a diversion but a performance that changes from deceit to redemption through Alexandria’s act of participation in the story.
 
The film is also incidentally about film making as suspension of disbelief. It ends with the joyful lie that is motion pictures, as Alexandria delights in the heroic acts of all the film stunt men of 1920s cinema, imagining each one to be Roy. He is clearly still the hero in her eyes, even as the tragic incident that brought them together is erased from the screen.
 

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August 2025

Monkey Man
Written and Directed by Dev Patel
Starring Dev Patel, Pitobash Tripathy, Sobhita Dhulipala
Release 2024
Running time 121 minutes
Rated MA 15+, not recommended for children under 15
 
Painted with all the tropes of an action film, Monkey Man was a remarkable surprise and an exercise in not judging a film by its cover. Dev Patel has acted in a range of different roles in which he has played the heroic main character, and his portrayal as a violent and vengeful protagonist seemed an interesting new development.
 
Written, directed and acted by Dev Patel, Monkey Man is a classic revenger’s tragedy, where the child avenges a parent’s death by engaging in the same corrupt violence. However, this film also touches on the power of cultural stories to redeem and connect, while also critiquing the political power that undermines community and family.
 
Monkey Man begins with our unnamed adult protagonist, the Kid, barely surviving as an underground street fighter disguised in a monkey mask. The Kid works his way into the employment of Queenie Kapoor, who runs a brothel and drug den, with the aim of getting close to Rana Singh, a corrupt policeman who is the object of his revenge. We learn why Kid wants revenge on Rana through a series of flashbacks of Kid’s mother. In these flashbacks we see both the tragic story of her demise as well as their loving relationship and their connection through the retelling of the story of Hanuman, the deity who regains his supernatural powers after being cursed as a child.
 
Kid manages to infiltrate the organisation, working his way towards isolating Rana and attempting an assassination. When this fails, he becomes a fugitive, tracked down and arrested by the police, then escaping only to be shot and left for dead. He is rescued and brought to a temple run by hijra, third- and transgender adherents of Ardhanarishvara, the combined form of the deities Shiva and Parvarti.
 
This community is under threat from the right-wing guru Baba Shakti, who covertly acquires the land of persecuted minorities under the guise of religious enlightenment, and under whose instructions the policeman Rana destroyed Kid’s village. The hijra, through the guidance of Alpha, the community’s leader, help Kid regain his strength and train towards his ultimate goal, revenge.
 
The end goal of the film is simple, but it is presented in a way that weaves the multiple story aspects together. The story of Hanuman is intrinsic to the rise of the hero and at the same time a link to the innocence of the past. It also taps into the significance of cultural storytelling, where religion is seen as both foundation of identity and a cause of corruption.   The film uses both primal action and divine imagery to critique the cultural class system that has transformed our protagonist from devoted child to angry avenger. This is a graphically violent film, with action sequences that are brutal and swift. Yet, woven between these sequences are visual links between Kid’s past and present, where movement triggers memory and symbolism lies in any object. 
 
What’s surprising about this film is the visual storytelling. Given the dark, gritty and menacing nature of the action, the use of colour, movement and camera perspective changes the emotional resonance in every scene. It's not just an action film, but also a meditation on family and a commentary on lives affected by naked ambition and political machination. There are scenes of touching beauty and subtle humour, despite the grim narrative, and all these aspects serve to make this a film of more depth than the blurb on the back of the cover can convey.

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July 2025

Persepolis

Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Starring Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve
Release 2007
Running time 96 minutes
Rated M, not recommended for children under 15

Persepolis is the coming-of-age story of Marjane Satrapi, a young Iranian woman living in France, narrated in retrospect by an older Marjane as she contemplates returning to her homeland and her family in Iran. It is based on her graphic novel of the same name and is presented in the same stylized format, presenting simplistic imagery to portray a complex background.

The story begins with 10-year-old Marjane living with her liberal-leaning family at the end of the dictatorial regime of the Iranian Shah during the 1970s. As revolution deposes the Shah, and Iranian people welcome a change in regime, it becomes apparent that the new world order is in fact more repressive and dangerous to Iran's population. Suddenly, previous political agitators become victims to the fundamentalist regime, and strict Islamic law is imposed, forcing women to dress and behave modestly.

As she moves towards adolescence, Marjane indulges in western culture at home, while becoming increasingly outspoken at school. When she is expelled, her parents send her to a family friend in Vienna, fearing for her fate under the Islamic regime. She is forced to live in a variety of locations, eventually living on the streets for a while until she is taken to hospital with severe bronchitis. During this time, she reflects on her Iranian heritage and identity and decides to return home. 

Marjane attends university and again questions the regime and its politics and authority. She meets her future husband but they divorce after a year and Marjane's mother encourages her to leave Iran for good.

While this narrative examines significant political events and changes, it does so through the eyes of a child, at first, and then through the awareness of a young woman exposed to both Western and Middle Eastern influences. More importantly, this story is one of family relationships. Marjane's relationship with her grandmother is strong and significant; her parents are supportive, caring and determined to pave a way for her. Both God and her grandmother are reoccurring figures in Marjane's imagination, both giving her direction in developing her identity and personal politics.

The creative use of perspective, framing and gentle movement in the animation allows the viewer to focus on the human experience, and how the characters are affected by the events that take place. The black and white presentation is simple in its format but has the capacity to be both innocent in its meaning, and stark and oppressive. People become shadows, both anonymous agents of oppression as well as nameless victims.  The movement of flowers, clouds and snow throughout the story offer a gentler interpretation, that of a young girl reaching maturity, finding love and exploring connection to family and identity separate from the regime that will cover and erase her sense of self.

The title evokes the ancient capital of Persia, hinting at an ongoing cultural tradition and identity that is suppressed by the extremist regime. The film simplifies the historical and political background that brought the country to its current state, but what Persepolis explores is how that cultural and family connection is impacted when there is political upheaval, with a light touch and a gentle sense of humour. Ultimately, the film draws attention to the significance of personal storytelling, reminding us that individuals are at the centre of world-changing events.
 

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June 2025

Greedy People

Directed by Potsy Ponciroli
Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Release date 23 August 2024
Running time 107 minutes
Rated M15+ Strong violence and coarse language

If you’re like me, sometimes you enjoy a comedy to remind you that life isn’t that serious and that people are basically harmless, even though they do silly things. Greedy People, directed by Potsy Ponciroli, hints that the small-town shenanigans taking place in the film are just that, harmless and foolish. You wonder how it will end.
 
Will is the new police officer in town and on his first day, is partnered up with Terry, a small-town cop who has never left the island of Providence, and probably never will. This is his kingdom, a relatively crime free paradise where he can poach free coffee from the local cafes, shag his married girlfriend during work hours, and otherwise not be bothered by the criminal elements. On his first day, Will responds incorrectly to a callout and ends up accidently killing the wife of the local shrimp merchant. Will and Terry decide to cover up the accident by making the scene look like a robbery, and in the process, discover a million dollars in an unsecured basket. They decide to split the money after the noise has died down. What Terry and Will don’t know, is that the money was intended for the Cuban, left by the shrimp merchant to pay for the hit on his wife, so he could run off with his secretary. The husband believed the hitman did the job, but the Cuban, finding the body already dead, still wants the money for his time. Meanwhile, Will has told his wife about his emotional first day, and about the money, but pins the blame for the accidental death on his partner, Terry.
 
Sounds like a comedy of errors, right?
 
Except what happens next is an even bigger series of accidents, as the two cops lie about the death and their involvement, and their boss becomes suspicious. Of course, the money is a huge incentive, but all the characters have other driving motivations that chasing the dollars brings to the fore. What starts off as slapstick, takes a sharp turn when we realise that the characters are making decisions that reflect their own personal agenda, and are determined to follow through to get what they want.
 
Terry is presented as a somewhat morally questionable buffoon, but as the film progresses, we see Terry for what he is, striped of his charm and insouciance, he becomes calculating and threatening. His actions imply a self-centred personality, someone who takes what he wants without consequence. And Will, who wants to make a good impression but walks in to a new job on a back foot, reveals that people in a state of panic never make good choices.
 
Greedy People is a dark comedy that very subtly explores what motivates people, and what they think they can get away with. Each character has something that makes them engaging, but despite the wholesome small-town atmosphere, not all of them are “good people”, and the money is really an agent of chaos. One death becomes the first domino in a chain of fallen people. The multiple deaths that occur are not inevitable.
 
The absurdity of the plot, the comedic consequences that play out on others even though the perpetrators are unknowing, highlight the moral ambiguity of the characters and force us to re-examine who we align with in this film. There’s hope at the end though, and all’s well that ends well for the innocent.

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May 2025

The Menu

Directed by Mark Mylod
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and John Leguizamo
Release date 18 November 2022 (United States)
Running time 107 minutes
Rated M15+ Strong themes, violence, and course language

There are always horror stories from the hospitality industry, from the soul-crushing repetitiveness of fast food to the controlling chefs who make their staff cry. The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod, takes this one step further, by examining when a chef’s perfectionism and obsession crosses paths with the food snobbery of wealthy customers, reminding us that money can buy prestige but not satisfy your hunger.
 
The Menu begins with a young couple, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), waiting to catch a boat to Hawthorn Island, the location of the prestigious restaurant of the same name, and run by virtuoso celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). We learn in the opening sequence that this restaurant is excessively expensive, attracting only those that can afford “the experience”. Among the other guests are a film star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant, a trio of business execs, an older couple and a pair of food critics, and a single older woman. There is some tension between the young couple; as they arrive on the Island, we learn that Margot has replaced Tyler’s original date, and her name is not on the guest list.
 
The visitors are taken on a tour of the island, where Elsa, the maître d’, describes how the island produces its own food and Slowik’s chefs practice absolute precision in their culinary craft. The diners arrive at the restaurant, are invited to sit, and the meal begins.  
 
The narrative labels each meal like a menu entry, and each dish is named for a particular point that Chef wants to make. In fact, the whole menu is a meticulously prepared breakdown of Slowik’s contempt for his diners and a hint at their fate. To elaborate on the plan would spoil the ending, although it is unsurprising where the plot ends. Slowik begins as the poster boy for fine dining and nouveau cuisine. Even as his creative passion for food is crushed under the weight of pleasure withheld by his diners, when given the opportunity to find that passion again, it does not stop him from completing his mission.
 
While this film is a commentary on class, wealth, pretension, and identity, it is challenging to understand the motivation for Slowik's actions. Is it power gone too far with almost cult-like devotion from his chefs? Is it rebellion against his ever-present, ever-drunk, but never-satisfied mother? is it the pleasure of humiliation when revealing the darkest secrets and desires of his clientele, and his staff? Is he just a petty, tortured artist? The plot is deceptively simple, but the characters are also simple, or at least readable. As the plot unfolds towards its inevitability, our only real concern is for our protagonist Margot, and we wonder whether she will extricate herself from a situation in which money talks, but nobody walks.
 
Ralph Fiennes is an incredible actor and genuinely makes us sympathetic to Slowik, but it’s hard to care about the other characters, and it’s difficult to tell if this is the intention, or just lazy character development. We feel sorry for them because they are unwitting victims, not because they are nice people. Margot’s final act returns some humanity to her interaction with Slowik but we know that it is an act of self-preservation, rather than genuine kindness.  
 
Overall, the film was well acted, well-paced, and well structured, but like the impromptu lamb chops in the third act, it wasn’t particularly well done.

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April 2025

Oscar and Lucinda

Directed by Gillian Armstrong
Adapted from the novel Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Roxburgh
Release date 31 December 1997
Running time 132 minutes
Rated M Low-level violence and low-level sex scene

Oscar and Lucinda, directed by Jillian Armstrong and based on the novel by Peter Carey, is an unlikely romance, another Australian classic film set in the mid-nineteenth century that explores the connection between belonging and identity in a brave new world.  
 
Our two main characters are introduced as young people whose personalities have been formed by the death of a parental figure. Oscar Hopkins, the child of a Plymouth Brethren minister and amateur biologist, is brought up destined for the ministry. Oscar believes in God but leaves the direction of his spiritual path to chance. He runs away from his father to join the Anglican church and its local minister, Mr Stratton, who rears him and later sends him to university to complete his vocation. There, Oscar meets a friend who introduces him to gambling, and his success leads him to a deep addiction that puts him at odds with his Anglican mentor. Oscar is determined to rid himself of the gambling demon by emigrating to the colony of New South Wales as a teacher. On his journey there he meets Lucinda Leplastrier, a colonial heiress whose parents’ demise has left her with a fortune, but little guidance on what to do with it. When she reaches her majority, she moves to Sydney and upon seeing the Prince Rupert Glassworks, is determined to buy it to fulfil her childhood obsession with glass. She visits London on business and meets Oscar on the return trip. Lucinda is a compulsive gambler and the two strike up a friendship that engages their mutual interests.  
 
Upon arriving back in the colony, Lucinda discovers her friend and mentor, the Reverend Mr Hassett, has been sent away to the northern township of Bellingen to avoid the scandal of been associated with her and her known gambling habit. Soon after, Oscar is dismissed from his position in the Church for the same reason. Lucinda then employs him at the Glassworks and Oscar—believing Lucinda is in love with her mentor—proposes an astonishing idea: to create Lucinda’s glass pavilion as a church and to send it to Reverend Hassett in Bellingen. They bet their mutual inheritances that it can be done in five weeks.  
 
The journey to Bellingen sees Oscar travel overland through the harsh terrain. Ultimately, he is forced to face his fear of water, when his traveling companions abandon him following a violent incident, and he builds a boat to deliver the church and to fulfil his promise to Lucinda.  
This is an unexpected romance between two unusual characters who cannot make their idiosyncrasies fit into convention, nor can they demonstrate their affection in the usual way. Oscar’s obsessive personality encourages the most extreme emotional offering. Just as he abandoned his father on the random outcomes of a thrown rock, so too does he hazard his love for Lucinda through a life-threatening act of devotion, one that does not take into consideration how the random, selfish acts of others might undermine his vision and purpose. The backdrop of the brutal reality of colonial Australia—Victorian moralism, violence towards the original inhabitants, and the self-interested actions of the colonists—not only emphasises the oddball nature of our main characters, but also their innocence and optimism.
 
Some beautiful sweeping landscape shots mixed with tight interiors demonstrate the manic energy of the main characters, as they are driven together by their desire to gamble their luck and fortune, hazarding all on the ultimate outcome.

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March 2025

Only Lovers Left Alive

Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Jeffrey Wright, and John Hurt
Release date 25 May 2013 (Cannes), 21 February 2014 (United Kingdom), and 11 April 2014 (United States)
Running time 123 minutes
Rated M Supernatural themes, course language, and nudity

Some films are a conversation about the human condition. In this film, our main characters deal with both the joy and the burden of life, the importance of art, of connection with others, and with the quintessential aspect of existence—survival. Only Lovers Left Alive, by Jim Jarmusch, is an art-house vampire film starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, as the titular characters who experience immortality shadowed by the constant threat of exposure and redeemed by their reciprocal love.  
 
The film is set in the late 20th century, although Adam and Eve have been lovers for centuries. Adam lives in Detroit, collecting rare instruments and making music that reflects his melancholy mood. He distributes his music through his agent, Ian, while maintaining his absolute anonymity. Eve lives in Tangiers, surrounding herself with books and poetry and flitting through the streets at night. Both vampires have their regular supplier of "the good stuff”, Adam from a hospital blood doctor, and Eve from the ancient playwright, Christopher Marlowe. Like Adam, Marlowe is responsible for some of the world's greatest art throughout the centuries, delivered through others to prevent their immortality from being discovered. However, Adam is on the brink of despair. as time rolls on he wonders what the point of it all is. Eve, ever devoted, comes to his aid and they share in the moments of complete togetherness. Into this situation comes Ava, Eve’s younger sister, who desires all kinds of pleasure without a care for the cost to others. During a night out with Adam’s agent, Ava takes what she needs and Adam and Eve are left to clean up the mess. This element of exposure has consequences that reveal how fragile the vampiric existence is, and at the end, the two lovers do what they have to, to survive.
 
This film explores what it is to be human, and how our humanity is fully experienced through our connection with others. It also explores what happens when those connections are one sided. Adam hides from others with determination, focusing his art on the experience of his inner life. Eve on the other hand, moves through the streets of Tangiers, barely disguised and fully conscious of her movement in the world of others. She points out to Adam that being truly present in the moment is the point he is missing and this is probably why she convinces Adam to go out with herself and Ava, risking exposure.  
 
This film is beautifully shot, with the darkness of the night scenes being both moody and oppressive and concealing and liberating at the same time. The scenes are lavish, with aerial shots and camera tilts that give the camera an artistic—rather than voyeuristic—gaze; the camera tilt as we watch the vampires experience the rapture of drinking blood, forces us to look down on the characters at their most vulnerable. This observation of pleasure demonstrates their needs and their weaknesses as similar to our own; their lust is not for so much blood, as it is for the depths of human experience and creative output.  
 
Only Lovers Left Alive is hardly a horror film, but instead follows our protagonists through their sensual worlds, accompanied by an attractive soundtrack and moody visuals, while delicately revolving around that kernel of truth about existence, that death is inevitable.

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February 2025

The Holdovers

Directed by Alexander Payne
Starring Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa
Release date October 27 2023 (United States)
Running time 133 minutes
Rated M, Mature themes and course language

The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne, is a Christmas movie that isn’t about Christmas, but about the nobility of spirit that comes with relationships built under the pressure cooker of personal tragedy. Recommended by a co-worker and described by a friend as “a more cynical Dead Poet’s Society,” The Holdovers is the story of a young man, a disillusioned teacher, and the head cook at Barton College—the prestigious boarding school they all attend. Our main character, Angus Tully, is a smart but surly teen, a bully with an underlying anger that manifests as a superiority complex. When he learns that his mother wants to spend Christmas with her new husband, he is grouped with five other boys who cannot go home for the holidays. They are kept under the supervision of Mr Paul Hunham, an ancient history teacher whose reputation for academic excellence is known and resented by both students and teachers. When one of the boys convinces his rich father to take him and the other boys on their snow vacation, Angus, who cannot get parental permission, is left alone with Hunham and Mary Lamb, who runs the school kitchen.
 
The rest of the holiday sees these three main characters interact with each other, finding out bits of information and learning how to get along. We learn that Angus’s mother has recently remarried, and he tells Mr Hunham that his father has died. We discover that Mary worked at the school to enable her son to attend—something she would not have been able to do as a single Black mother. We also learn that her son recently died in Vietnam. Her grief is an undercurrent to the tension between the male characters and it often puts their surly attitudes into perspective. Mr Hunham is an alumnus of Barton, but his past is revealed slowly, as layers of developed personality are stripped away by his companions. After a less-than-amazing Christmas, the trio decide to go on a road trip to Boston, where Mary can see her pregnant sister. Angus, on the other hand, uses the opportunity to attempt to run away, revealing his own personal tragedy and his concerns for his future. Mr Hunham and Angus open up about how traumatic events of the past have shaped who they are in the present, slowly revealing information to each other as they explore Boston. The end of the film reveals the consequences of the journey. The choice that Hunham makes as a result demonstrates how simple choices help him evolve into a person free from tragedy.
 
This film derives its narrative force by not shying away from the ugly and mean spiritedness that eats away at damaged people. The characters are real and awkward, the conversations between them don’t give you the platitudes you’d expect. As we progress with the journey, we discover, as they do, the kernel of love that exists within each of the characters, as they process their respective grief by opening up to one another. There are moments in the film where the heartbreak is tangible, where the uncomfortableness is visceral. The dialogue is the star of this film, along with the visual detail and lingering shots on moments where dialogue just doesn’t say enough.  Even at the end, what isn’t said is as powerful as what is said, and the evocative set—its snow and space and defused lighting—creates a sense of emotional and chronological distance that is almost a visual metaphor for reflecting the past.

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