Never wrote a proper review of this one, which I caught up with fairly late (it wound up on my top ten list), so my brief Watch This piece will have to do. There are few directors whose next film I anticipate as eagerly as Loktev's.

Meditative, sad, void of answer. A restrained, minimalist film that aches with power.

Time to take care of Slothy’s seven new ulcers. This might be the most unenjoyable film to which I can give no grade lower than an A-. To those looking for comfort or knowing things, seek elsewhere.

I enjoyed The Loneliest Planet and so was eager to circle back for this. Formally interesting and ultimately affecting, but it felt like the director left a lot on the table, in terms of the character and the situation.

Shades of The Passion of Joan of Arc in this uneven, roughly sketched slow-cinema nugget. The real theme here is connection, since it’s the one thing the nameless protagonist really seems to be striving for, from her fumbling attempts to strike up conversation with her terrorist handlers to the sad entreaty for them to share a meal with her (would have liked to see more on this scene, with its goofy pageant of slices stuffed through the mouth holes of ski masks). Mostly she’s seeking union with an ineffable presence (whatever God this is all done in the service of, if any) which she’ll attain via the self-erasure of martyrdom. That release never comes, which shouldn’t be surprising, since the rejection by all other parties and the exclusive focus on her body (stifling close-ups, sounds magnified to a booming level) indicates how alone she is, even among the teeming crowds of Times Square.

Never wrote a proper review of this one, which I caught up with fairly late (it wound up on my top ten list), so my brief Watch This piece will have to do. There are few directors whose next film I anticipate as eagerly as Loktev's.

There's minimalist and then there's antagonizing wank. As in: I'm going to film thirty minutes of me taking a shit and you're going to lap it up because I implicitly claim that it means something purely because it's in the film. Fuck this! You could walk away from this film at any point, make a cup of tea, go out into the sunshine, live your life, and come back to it an hour later having missed nothing. In fact, just don't watch this film and you won't have missed anything. To add insult to injury, director Julia Loktev not only has fuck all happen she also amplifies the sounds of fuck all happening like people eating, licking fingers, cutting nails etc... Honestly, fuck this! This is not film making, this is not tension, or art, or anything. This is someone polishing a poo and trying to force feed it to you. Avoid.

Punishing close ups and lack of music heighten tension to unbearable levels in this stark drama. A chilling & superb film anchored by a terrific performance by Luisa Williams who is in virtually every shot.

Meditative, sad, void of answer. A restrained, minimalist film that aches with power.