YOUR FAVOURITE RECENT FILMS?

Corpus Christi: Film dramatises real-life story of juvenile delinquent who posed as a small-town priest

Dear Readers,

I’m a big fan of Mubi, the streaming platform that produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers. They have a wonderful collection and their films have kept me good company recently, especially as there is such a glut of anything good anywhere else.

Below are some recent films I’ve enjoyed, but I’m on the look out for more. Please comment below with your recommendations. Keep them modern.

As always, if you have the means, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, so we can keep this show on the road.

CORPUS CHRISTI (2019), is a brilliant and darkly comic Polish film about an ex-con who fraudulently impersonates a priest. Directed by the fantastic Jan Komasa.

From Leslie Felperin at The Guardian: “Corpus Christi is often moving but also disquieting and even intermittently funny, this drama unfurls a spiritual parable that is uniquely Polish but accessible to all.”

ZERO FUCKS GIVEN (2022), a tender and novel study of a young French woman trapped in the machinations of the budget airline business, from first-time writer-directors Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre. The star is Adèle Exarchopoulos, from the masterful Blue is the Warmest Colour.

From Guy Lodge at The Guardian, “This isn’t a bitter or ungenerous film; beneath its top-down critique of an industry lies a tender, humane sympathy for its heroine’s wanderlust".

HOLY SPIDER (2023), a pitch black Iranian thriller about a real-life case of a man who murdered 16 women. From director Ali Abbasi.

Godfrey Chesire at Roger Ebert, “Moment to moment, scene after scene, both dramatically and stylistically, the film impresses with its careful control, attention to detail and unerring subtlety. And the performances Abbasi gets from Zar Amir Ebrahimi (she won Best Actress at Cannes) and Mehdi Bajestani are simply two of the most compelling and finely realized that I’ve seen this year”.

Please comment with your suggestions below.

Hanif