Goldbeater

Steven Soderbergh has (once again) found a fairly solid balance between social statement and commercial comedy where he capitalizes well on the R-rating. Interestingly, when you strip away (no pun intended) all the commercial trappings, hilarious dance choreography and very imaginative visual games with the camera, you are left with the skeleton of a fully functional drama based on well-drawn characters. The dryly humorous British The Full Monty will always be closer to my heart in this respect, but I can also recommend Magic Mike with a clear conscience.

A well put together documentary, where the filmmakers arrive in the city of Mariupol on the first day of the Russian invasion, only to watch the total disintegration of its buildings and its inhabitants until the 20th day, when the city is practically nothing but rubble. Dramaturgically, the film works brilliantly almost as a war drama, although I hesitate to write that, because then any idiot would find it all the more easy to question the footage as if it were staged. At times it is almost a snuff film by explicitly showing the suffering and dying of the inhabitants. In short, the most unpleasant film in a very long time, yet it must be seen to be understood and to understand.

A hard-hitting drama about growing up in the Belgian countryside. The traumatized present is mixed with the innocence of childhood memories, where all innocence slowly fades away, and once the turning points come, it becomes a really depressing watch; quite devastating in the last part. I could imagine a slightly more viable ending, but I respect the creative decision.

Or about murder without murder. Murder in Big Horn raises some really thought-provoking issues with some very interesting circumstances, casting doubt on the workings of the system and calling for heightened attention, but that's about all this miniseries does. Under the guise of a would-be "true crime" documentary, it just swirls speculation and fear as far as it can hide behind defending the rights of the oppressed. It's a great shame, because the series otherwise highlights very pressing issues and problems that are systemically rooted, but wraps them up in such a speculative show that few people will actually think about them after watching. And the three-hour running time is untenable; the last episode practically consists only of repeating and summarizing the previous two.

Religious communities bordering on sectarianism, denial of one's own identity, arranged marriages, suppression of interests, hypocrisy, perfidy – fertile ground for a very solid drama.

A classic American independent drama set on an Indian reservation. There's nothing to say against it, just as there's nothing to praise about it. In short, it's OK.

A bitter and only mildly comedic drama about the inability to communicate and vent one's emotions, or something like that. Or rather, the morbidity itself, to be precise. I really don’t like this kind of chatty bollocks. A waste of Jennifer Connelly's time and a waste of the time for the viewers who had any hopes for this.

Sometimes I Think About Dying takes its time to get going and show what its goal actually is. It gives a glimpse inside a character who staggers through the world like a ghost, practically counting down the days until it's all over for her. Seemingly little happens afterwards, yet emotionally it works very well and as a viewer I was able to tune into the mood of the film and the main character perfectly. And considering how Daisy Ridley was a poor casting choice in an unnamed bombastic action sci-fi franchise, she gives a great performance here in a spare and nuanced mode. I would have omitted a couple of dream sequences, but otherwise satisfied.

A very promising start, a little questionable conclusion. I understand what Chloe Domont is saying with this film, but I was slightly underwhelmed by the execution. The whole idea could have been presented in hints and small intimate motives of the characters and it would have been very effective. Instead, in the second half, they chose to drive the behaviour of the characters ad absurdum and all the believability fell down for me. It's a shame, it had the makings of a very solid drama with some very thought-provoking ideas.

A comedy thriller about the pitfalls of modern dating. The moments when it's quite funny, apt and functional with tension are unfortunately almost exactly proportional to the moments when it's slightly annoying, dull and opinionated. All in all, it's a pretty OK breather, nothing more. But maybe there's enough in there for someone.