Sarah Ward – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

DON’T SAY GOOD LUCK – Review by Sarah Ward

August 13, 2026 Sarah Ward Bryce Fortner, Don’t Say Good Luck, jordan horowitz, Julia Hart, Laura Hankin, melanie lynskey, netflix, Shayar Bhansali, Sunny Sandler

Don’t Say Good Luck isn’t astute and thoughtful solely because it features Melanie Lynskey. That the Yellowjackets star was the only actor that filmmaker Julia Hart wanted (and even considered) for the movie’s second-biggest role is a perfect piece of shorthand, however. How do you instantly signal to the watching world that a film values emotional honesty, and that it isn’t afraid to confront life’s heartaches and struggles with authenticity? How do you convey that a movie that plays with plenty of familiar elements — such as telling a teen coming-of-age tale, and one about staging a musical at that, while unfurling an illness story — won’t settle for standard? You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’s Sunny Sandler is Don’t Say Good Luck’s lead, but Lynskey is its lighthouse.

Reviews

LOST CHAPTERS – Review by Sarah Ward

July 16, 2026July 21, 2026 Sarah Ward Adela Rodríguez, Caracas, Ena Alvarado, Ignacio Alvarado, José Ostos, Lorena Alvarado, Lost Chapters, Venezuelan films

What a gorgeous and insightful ode Lost Chapters is to the analogue and the tactile, and to physical reminders and repositories of the past. What a tribute writer/director/editor Lorena Alvarado’s debut feature is, too, to life’s small but significant moments and pleasures. Not just set and shot within but sharing its affection with Caracas as well, Lost Chapters ruminates upon Venezuela’s cultural history through its focus on the tangible items that fill our lives and tell our tales. Alvarado’s movie is also a bibliophile’s dream, plus a crafty mix of documentary and fiction that actively cherishes the objects and art, alongside the everyday interactions and encounters, that can easily be overlooked but are the ink in which our existence is written.

Reviews

DO YOU LOVE ME – Review by Sarah Ward

July 7, 2026July 21, 2026 Sarah Ward beirut, compilation documentary, Do You Love Me, Lana Daher, Lebanon, Qutaiba Barhamji

Is it possible to paint a definitive portrait of any country, city, chapter of the past or even moment? Do You Love Me has an answer, and also is an answer. The remarkable debut feature from Lana Daher, who co-writes with editor Qutaiba Barhamji, this essayistic documentary springs from a void: as the film’s opening text advises viewers, contemporary history is not taught in schools in Lebanon. To explore and chronicle the nation’s recent experiences, then, Daher and Barhamji splice together media from over 20,000 sources, such as movies, fellow docos, TV, music, podcasts, publications, photographs, news footage, found footage and home videos. Their resulting collage weaves and sways through snippets from its Beirut-focused treasure trove, and between years, like a dance — that act of physical expression that, every second that it takes place, conveys shapes, forms, movements and emotions with immediacy and passion yet is always and inescapably subjective.

Reviews

ROMERIA – Review by Sarah Ward

June 23, 2026 Sarah Ward carla simon, catalan films, Hélène Louvart, Llúcia Garcia, Romería, Spanish films

Carla Simón has done it again — made a marvel of a movie, that is, and one so teeming with insight and spirit that its personal ties are always evident, as was the case with both Summer 1993 and Alcarràs. The Spanish writer/director may prefer to stay in semi-autobiographical territory again with the richly evocative and resonant Romería; however, as she keeps amassing a resume enviable for its intimacy and intelligence, her work is no less affecting for fictionalising some of the specifics.

Reviews

THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT – Review by Sarah Ward

June 6, 2026June 6, 2026 Sarah Ward Andy Sarjahani, HN Shantha Murthy, Karla Murthy, The Gas Station Attendant

With her latest documentary, The Place That Makes Us filmmaker Karla Murthy pays tribute to her father, HN Shantha Murthy; however, her lovingly crafted, personal essay-style feature is also a multi-layered exploration and an affecting, insightful musing. The Gas Station Attendant is an ode, a meditation, an examination and an act of recognition — of the way that the seeming minutiae of our lives can easily be seen as small but always feels anything but; of the role and importance of family histories, including sharing and interrogating them; and of the power and reality of hopes, plans and chasing brighter futures, be it the American dream or otherwise.

Reviews

OUR LAND – Review by Sarah Ward

April 21, 2026April 26, 2026 Sarah Ward argentinian films, Chuschagasta Indigenous community, colonization, Dario Luis Amín, Javier Chocobar, José Valivieso, lucrecia martel, Luis Humberto Gómez, María Alché, Nuestra Tierra, Our Land, Tucumán province

It feels both incomplete and inadequate to label Our Land (Nuestra Tierra) ‘true crime’, even if the label fits Argentine director Lucrecia Martel’s first-ever feature-length non-fiction film. A very real wrongdoing, the 2009 murder of Javier Chocobar from the Tucumán Province’s Indigenous Chuschagasta community, drives the documentary. Martel chronicles the nine-years-later court proceedings, accused and witness testimony included. A keen sense of justice’s selective blindness, of its imperfections at best and miscarriages at worst, remains an unshakeable presence. This engrossing and important documentary is unmistakably another of Martel’s movies to interrogate colonialism in her homeland. It is extraordinary.

Reviews

ERUPCJA – Review by Sarah Ward

April 10, 2026April 11, 2026 Sarah Ward Agata Trzebuchowska, Charli XCX, Erupcja, Jeremy O. Harris, Lena Góra, Pete Ohs, Will Madden

Brat summer came and went in 2024 in a wash of lime green and internet memes. Ever since, it has been cinema season for Charli xcx. The British singer and songwriter’s eruption across the big screen is no mere coincidence, acting in no less than seven films (Erupcja, 100 Nights of Hero, Sacrifice, The Moment, I Want Your Sex, The Gallerist and Faces of Death), and also helping to craft two of them as a writer and producer. (And then there’s her Wuthering Heights soundtrack album.) Such cinematic omnipresence sways with a tingle of fate, like forces colliding and conspiring to give xcx her celluloid moment. Erupcja even ponders how clinging onto patterns can feel exactly that way, and feel magical. Unlike in The Moment, she isn’t satirically stepping into her own shoes in this Warsaw-set romantic drama, but where Erupcja’s biggest name is concerned, it still offers commentary about her current career: that this is where xcx is meant to be right now.

Reviews

THE SERPENT’S SKIN – Review by Sarah Ward

March 26, 2026March 28, 2026 Sarah Ward Aaron Schuppan, Alice Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson, Charlotte Chimes, scott major, The Serpent’s Skin, Vera Drew

The Serpent’s Skin belongs to filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay first, then to her lead Alexandra McVicker, plus Avalon Fast as the latter’s love interest. Mackay’s knack for the ethereal and the sensual in her proudly transgender features, McVicker’s luminous tenderness and patience, Fast’s dynamic sense of assurance: potent individually and entrancing combined, they’re the ink that this dark fantasy romance is etched with. But it plays like a sign that two of the movie’s other cast members, Charlotte Chimes and Scott Major, each have long-running stints on former Australian TV mainstay Neighbours on their resumes — a positive one, no matter your connection to or affection for the recently cancelled Aussie serial, or lack thereof. While The Serpent’s Skin isn’t a soap opera or set in the Melbourne suburbs, it appreciates how infinitely more manageable and enjoyable life is when those around you are truly and committedly in your cul-de-sac or corner.

Reviews

WARDRIVER – Review by Sarah Ward

March 15, 2026March 16, 2026 Sarah Ward Dane DeHaan, Jeffrey Donovan, Mamoudou Athie, Rebecca Thomas, Sasha Calle, wardriver

Knowing how to hold a moment for a character who is realising that their world is changing forever is an underrated directorial skill. Let the time fly by and the emotional impact won’t land. Linger too long and subtlety drains. Rebecca Thomas’ two feature films, 2012’s coming-of-age drama Electrick Children and new thriller Wardriver, might clock in at less than 100 minutes apiece, but they both demonstrate the filmmaker’s talent for doing a Goldilocks and getting these moments just right.

Reviews

FOR WORSE – Review by Sarah Ward

February 20, 2026February 20, 2026 Sarah Ward Amy Landecker, Bradley Whitford, Brainstorm Media, For Worse, missi pyle, Paul Adelstein

In For Worse, spying a moment when Amy Landecker and Bradley Whitford aren’t acting opposite a previous co-star is rare. Romantic comedies are about connections, after all, and the search for bonds that stick. A likeable addition to the genre, this reflective, frequently funny film about a newly divorced woman finds ways to emphasise that idea not just within but beyond its narrative — while matching a clear love of rom-coms, plus a commitment to expanding past the usual twentysomethings that typically monopolise their frames, with shrewd observations about the truth of experiencing life and love.

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