Suntan (2016)

Suntan begins as an R-rated, Greek Islands take on The Office. The middle-aged and miserable Kostis (Makis Papadimitriou) is transferred to a tiny island to serve as their only doctor. As Christmas rains give way to summer sun, Kostis begins tagging along with a group of irreverent young tourists and struggles to strike up a…

Hashtag Activism and Bastille Day’s Unrelenting Cynicism

Action flick Bastille Day opens with a naked Frenchwoman (Stéphane Caillard) strolling through Paris. We soon learn that her nudity is intended to serve as a particularly dramatic distraction, allowing pickpocket Michael Mason (Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden) to pilfer a few wallets and passports at the orders of a local fence (Eriq Ebouaney). With…

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

You’d be forgiven for thinking that The Duke of Burgundy – a film essentially about a lesbian couple’s experimentations with BDSM – would stray towards the exploitative. But despite the subject matter, writer/director Peter Strickland downplays the erotic aspects of the film to emphasis an abstract evocation of the anxieties inherent in a long-term relationship.…

Dragonar Academy

I can’t really complain about the woeful storytelling on display in Dragon Academy’s first episode. The series – set in a medieval-kingdom-slash-high-school where students train dragons – is the kind of slight anime entertainment that I don’t expect much from. So I can forgive the preponderance of “As you know, your father, the king” dialogue…