Friday 28 April 2017

Suntan by Argyris Papadimitropoulos



Suntan from Greek director Argyris Papadimitropoulos starts out as a portrait of a lonely local doctor unexpectedly drawn out of his shell by a summer romance and ends, brilliantly, as a psychotic character study in the vein of Pablo Larrain’s Tony Manero (2008).

GP Kostis (Makis Papadimitriou) meets hedonistic party girl Anna (Elli Tringou) when she is rushed into his surgery one bright morning after gashing her thigh in a scooter crash. He treats the wound and endures the chaotic joking of her friends good-naturedly. In return, they hail Kostis as “the best doctor in the world” and invite him to join them at the beach. He does and seemingly becomes part of their tribe, going clubbing every night, jeopardising his professional life by staying out late and drinking too much, all the while pining for Anna to the obvious amusement of all.

Tuesday 11 April 2017

Song to Song by Terrence Malick - Review



Song to Song is the third film in Terrence Malick's semi-autobiographical trilogy about love. Stylistically they're born from The Tree of Life with each being a slightly different branch. To the Wonder twirled its way through a love triangle but failed to blossom. Knight of Cups (the best of the three) was a Fellini-esque glide through Hollywood by way of tarot cards. Rick's (Christian Bale) interior was reflected out into the film's dreamy visuals and you could at least feel the buds sprouting. I'd hoped Song to Song would be a culmination of this style. The Austin set love triangle between Rooney Mara’s musician (she was born to be a Malick character), Ryan Gosling's singer-songwriter, and Michael Fassbender's power hungry producer, lands somewhere between its two predecessors.