Oliver Weir

With his debut feature, Arco, Ugo Bienvenu puts a unique, thought-provoking twist on the solarpunk genre.

The Summer Book as a whole proves much too programmatic (an early don’t-worry-it’s-nothing cough sets the tone) and much too fearful of leaving its audience in the dark about the characters’ emotional states (hence its symbolic clutter).

For all the weak symbolism, Great Absence‘s achronological structure is a triumph.

In Chronicles, as in the two short films, [Tomás Gómez Bustillo] is primarily concerned with spiritual, ethical, and religious contrasts; scenarios in which miracles are mixed with coincidences, faith with rationality, and boredom with inspiration. But that is where the comparisons end; for Chronicles is in every way a more serious, controlled, and moving work of art, which stands with the very best of contemporary Argentine cinema.

What is detectable of the film’s Everest-thin atmosphere mainly derives from the warmly lit bars in which the somnambulant Annie constantly appears to have awoken. They sometimes exude lust and possibility, thanks to cinematographer Matt Clegg, but their potential is never fully realized, since they are mostly used as spaces to storm out of or quietly drift into, or else as generic backgrounds for interminable small talk.