Film Reviews

TEEN SPIRIT: SWAMY ROTOLO B ravura performance from non-professional actor Swamy Rotolo is the sun around which Italian drama To Chiara orbits. Passionate and impulsive, the titular teenager (played by Rotolo) is driven by her middle-child whims. Chiara yearns for affirmation from her introverted father, Claudio Guerrasio (Claudio Rotolo), but her burning curiosity for the other side of closed doors soon gets her in hot water and the consequences of her mischief start to swell in this genre-blending depiction of malavita – the life of crime.

Equal parts mafia thriller and neorealist missive, To Chiara is writer-director Jonas Carpignano’s third feature in a Calabrian trilogy. Like Mediterranea (2015) and A Ciambra (2017), it’s set in the port district of Gioia Tauro, where African migrants, a settled Roma community, and underground criminals live in discord exacerbated by poverty. A compelling film that examines morality without moralising, To Chiara explores crime as a means for survival.

It’s refreshing to see this typically macho lifestyle through the eyes of a teen girl. Chiara is at once intrigued, cynical and self-righteous about her community’s cycle of amorality. Casting the whole Rotolo family as the Guerrasio clan anchors the film in an affecting truth. But Carpignano also weaves in moments of dreamlike surreality that make To Chiara wholly engrossing. This slow burn will captivate those keen on gritty crime thrillers, heartfelt family sagas, and complex coming-of-age stories. AK

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While on a luxurious holiday in sunny Acapulco, wealthy siblings Neil (Tim Roth) and Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) – along with her teenage children Colin (Samuel Bottomley) and Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan) – receive news of their mother’s sudden death. What ensues is a story of one man’s disturbing passivity in the face of familial responsibility: Neil, pretending he’s forgotten his passport, stays in Mexico to drink, seduce a local shop owner (Iazua Larios), and lie on the beach. Sundownfollows director Michel Franco’s controversial 2020 thriller New Order, but unlike its predecessor, this film doesn’t seem so sure of what it is critiquing. Heavy-handed metaphors for capitalist greed provide moments of off-kilter surrealism, but remain largely unexplored, and the film’s final minutes offer a disappointingly banal explanation for Neil’s selfish behaviour. Despite its bloated second half, Sundown shines in its scenes of Neil’s disconcerting apathy – beer in hand, ignoring his ringing phone, he raises his face to the sun and closes his eyes. LOUISE CAIN

POMPO: THE CINÉPHILE  | IN CINEMAS JUNE

Welcome to Nyallywood – anime director Takayuki Hirao’s relentlessly optimistic vision of Hollywood. This alternate world makes no attempt to reflect life: the titular Pompo is a pre-teen girl who happens to be a veteran B-movie producer, while her assistant Gene manages to land a major directorial gig through sheer pluck and friendship. As Pompo and Gene embark on creating a prestige film, and they work with a character named Nathalie Woodward, nods are made to Cinema Paradiso(1988) and aspect ratios are delightfully screwed with. Much of the fun lies in the idiosyncrasies of this saturated LA, where people prioritise their love for cinema above all else. The saccharine bent may be off-putting if one thinks too hard about the actual labour realities of both the film and anime industries but, as Pompo quips in an early scene, “Making a silly movie takes genius”. In a few moments – like an action sequence where a blade-wielding Gene slices through snaking film rolls for his final cut – she’s proved mostly right. CLAIRE CAO

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Full of warmth, heart and depth, this uplifting comedy-drama is Renée Webster’s (The Heights) debut feature. Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones’s Diary) plays Gina, a timorous middle-aged woman, under-appreciated both at home and work. When an unexpected birthday present coincides with her unjust dismissal at work, Gina converts a flailing removalist company into one specialising in house cleaning and sexual intimacy. What starts as a predictably empowering story about older women’s desires morphs into something far more expansive about the nature of male sex work, reclamation and rediscovery, queer awakenings, and male vulnerability. The beautiful port city of Fremantle backdrops Gina’s rekindling as she finds solace in the sea, captured in breathtaking shots of her and her swimming buddies – a star-studded local cast of Tasma Walton (Mystery Road), Hayley McElhinney (The Babadook) and Caroline Brazier (Packed to the Rafters). An unashamed celebration of women, their bodies and their desires. SONIA NAIR