SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Film round-up: May 23, 2024
Asexual tenderness, Mad Maxine, fake hitmen and time-travel: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Slow, Furiosa, Hit Man and The Present
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Slow (15)
Directed by Marija Kavtaradze
★★★
WHEN dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas meet sparks fly, but this isn’t your typical romance or love story.
Elena (Greta Grineviciute) is very physical, passionate and sexual while Dovydas (Kestutis Cicenas) is asexual, as he confesses to her off the bat, which means they have to discover how to build their own kind of intimacy.
You are allowed to witness it without it being disrespectful or voyeuristic. It is sweet and tender and the film examines their differing physical needs and how they affect the relationship as it develops at a gentle and slow pace.
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ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
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A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
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ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Green Border, Fancy Dance, Before Dawn and The Exorcism
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Channel swimming, forgetting the ex-bf, therapeutic cycling and scary spiders: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Young Woman and the Sea, The Beast, Hard Miles, and Sting
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The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger; Our Mothers; Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; and The Almond and the Seahorse
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The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews The Fall Guy, Red Herring, Love Lies Bleeding and The Idea of You