52 films by women 2022: 34/52.
Barbara Hammer in more straightforward documentary mode isn't as rewarding as her more sensory shorts to me - but they're still intimate and personal in ways conventional history docs can never be, and this is worthwhile if only to give you a treasure trove of new potential role models.
As Evelyn Quan, Michelle Yeoh reminds us she's an infinity-threat: she acts, she sings, she's funny, she's emotive, she does her own stunts, she can beat up a room full of people armed with only a riot shield, a computer keyboard and a stapler. In any other movie this would be the showcase role, but here she's the calm centre, with Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan playing even more outrageous, unexpected variations of their initial characters to extraordinary effect.…
Too often, when we wonder who the Greatest Living Englishman is, we forget that Nick Park asked Dreamworks for thirty million dollars to make an internationally-released feature-length film about marrow-growing contests in Lancashire and they said yes.
I was going to add a caveat to this review, to say that perhaps it wasn't a 4.5 film, but if you're queer, or if you're from one of those towns - you know, the ones with shops that you've never seen without the shutters down, the ones whose people are said to be "workshy" by people on TV despite the fact that some of the older residents still have scars on their head that they got from literally, physically…
