Tag: camaraderie

Rebuilding

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 April 2026
No Comments on Rebuilding
Sticky post

Director – Max Walker-Silverman – 2025 – US – Cert. PG – 96m

****

A divorced man whose home has been destroyed by a forest fire begins to reconnect with his pre-teenage daughter – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 17th

This opens with an image of red hot embers rising and falling a black night sky. A couple of brief, opening, expository shots is all we are shown of the tragedy, but it’s enough: much of the remainder of the narrative takes place against a backdrop of leafless, tall, burned trees, an area of likely great former beauty now reduced to desolation. This is not the cinema of big budget disaster scenarios with no-holds barred pyrotechnic effects: it’s something altogether much lower key and quieter, an exploration of the effect of natural disasters on the lives of those people who survive them.

The fire has destroyed the 20 acres of property on the edge of the forest where Dusty (Josh O’Connor from The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus, 2025; Mothering Sunday, Eva Husson, 2017; God’s Own Country, Francis Lee, 2017) lives, an area of outstanding natural beauty. He sells off his surviving livestock at an auction, then calls in on his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy from The White Lotus, TV series, 2022) who lives in the nearby town with their pre-teen daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre) and his mother-in-law Bess (Amy Madigan from Weapons, Zach Cregger, 2025; Pollock, Ed Harris, 2000; Field of Dreams, Phil Alden Robinson, 1989).… Read the rest

Tags a small plant, Amy Madigan, area of outstanding natural beauty, auction, bake-outs, belongings, brush, burned, camaraderie, car park, David Bright, desolation, divorced, divorced man, door, drama, electronic tablet, everyday, ex-wife, familiarity, Federal Emergency Management Agency, fellow survivors, FEMA, forest fire fathers and daughters, former beauty, glow in the dark, glow in the dark stars, home, home cooking, home destroyed, homeless, homework, interior trailer walls, into town, introverted, isolated rural dwellings, job well done, Josh O’Connor, Kali Reis, leafless, library, library car park, Lily LaTorre, livestock, Max Walker-Silverman, Meghann Fahy, mother-in-law, natural disaster, neighbours, notice to vacate, ordinary, paint the trailer, pink notes, porch, post-crisis, privacy, Rebuilding, red hot embers rising, school, self-reliance, sell off, shared experience, stars, storybook, survival, survivors, tablet, thrown together, tragedy, trailer, trailer home, trailer park, transcendence, transcendent, transformation of a home, trees, wifi, wooden steps

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

A Bunch Of Amateurs

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 11 November 2022
No Comments on A Bunch Of Amateurs
Sticky post

Director – Kim Hopkins – 2022 – UK – Cert. 12a – 95m

***

The Bradford Movie Makers amateur filmmaking club struggles to survive in the modern world – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 11th

Founded in 1932, the Bradford Movie Makers is a club for lovers of movies to make their own films. Such amateur groups were once common in parts of Britain, but now they’re dying out. As one BMM member comments, Leeds and Wakefield are gone. The BMM may be next: its accounts are in a bad shape, with various utility bills unpaid and several years’ worth of rent owing to a seemingly sympathetic landlord. The decrepit garage space at the side of the building needs clearing. It’s currently used as a local dumping ground for rubbish. And many of the members themselves are getting on in years; in the course of the two or three years covered by this documentary, some of the members’ spouses will die.

But this is Yorkshire, and life goes on. Retired carpenter Colin climbs the steps of his uphill garden to perch precariously by his fence to plant daffodil bulbs. Eventually at the club, his herculean feat of climbing the narrow stairs to the screening room is augmented by the installation of a stairlift.… Read the rest

Animation Features Movies

Underdog
(언더독)
aka
A Dog’s Courage

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 November 2020
No Comments on Underdog
(언더독)
aka
A Dog’s Courage

Directors – Lee Choon-baek, Oh Sung-yoon – 2018 – South Korea – Cert. U – 102m

****

An abandoned dog falls in with a pack of wild dogs with whom he learns to survive – animated feature plays online from 2pm Friday, November 6th to 2pm Monday, November 9th, book here, from the Animation strand of the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF)

In a genuinely heartbreaking opening, a man drives out to nowhere, tells his dog he’s totally free and leaves him a big bag of dog biscuits. The man throws a tennis ball and while the dog runs to fetch it, he drives away. We pull out to vast landscapes, emphasising the dog is alone.

Before long, the dog Moong-Chi (voice: Do Kyung-soo) runs in to a pack of similarly abandoned dogs who are living in a derelict building which they share with the newcomer. That isn’t going to last though: a digger moves in to demolish it. Moong-chi must be rescued by pack member and small scots terrier Jjang-a (voice: Park Cheol-min) from the hunter, a cruel biker who catches and imprisons dogs for the sole purpose of breeding them for profit. As bitch Ba-mi (voice: Park So-dam, from Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, 2109) puts it, it’s a dog factory.… Read the rest

Tags 2D animation, animal cruelty, animation, anthropomorphism, camaraderie, community, cross-country, dogs, in search of utopia, kindness, Korea, LKFF, LKFF 2020, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2020, pet abandonment, quest, South Korea, survival