ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

polish films

Reviews 

EO – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , ,

EO reveals life from a Sardinian donkey’s perspective. Individuals reveal who they are—values, priorities, empathy—in their interaction with animals. The brilliant, minimalist French director Robert Bresson documented exactly this in his 1966 Au Hasard, Balthazar, documenting the donkey Balthazar’s life. Updating the content, Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski reassesses this world through the donkey EO’s point of view as he experiences his life’s joys and tragedies.

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Reviews 

THE BALCONY MOVIE – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , ,

One clever documentarian, Polish director Paweł Łoziński, turned his pandemic isolation into a fascinating, revealing interaction with neighbors in The Balcony Movie. Shooting entirely from his second floor balcony in Warsaw, over two-and-half years, Łoziński asks questions and listens to random passers-by who agree to talk with him, and some don’t but are still included.

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Reviews 

HOLD TIGHT – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , ,

Set in a Warsaw suburb, the Netflix series Hold Tight just might be encouraging the viewers with that title because it periodically becomes confusing. The through line, however, remains clear. Teenage Adam has disappeared after his best friend Igor died under mysterious circumstances. Adam’s mother Anna drives the narrative with her single-minded determination to find him.

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Reviews 

NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN – Review by Maitland McDonagh

Maitland McDonagh , , , ,

Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s slyly pretty fable in which an interloper’s healing frees members of a miserable community from their various repressions and discontents, is slyly funny–no belly laughs, just an accumulation of weird and unexpected digressions that offset the film’s pervasive atmosphere of isolation, loneliness and slow suffocation by social conventions.

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Guest Posts Reviews 

SWEAT – Review by Marietta Steinhart (Guest Post)

Jennifer Merin , , , , , ,

Few films have pictured the Social Media phenomenon as empathically as Sweat. Thanks to a powerhouse performance by Magdalena Koleśnik, Sweatallows for a very nuanced and kind look at a profession that has been demonized and mocked. Watching movies about people staring at their phones is usually about as stimulating as watching grass grow. This is not the case here. Koleśnik’s energy is contagious.

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Reviews 

SWEAT – Review by Carol Cling

Carol Cling , , , , ,

Decked out in bright bubblegum pink, her blonde ponytail bouncing as energetically as her lithe legs and toned arms, Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik) shimmers in the spotlight, radiating energy to and affection for the legions of Insta fans she calls “my loves.” But it’s when Sweat looks beneath the shiny-happy sheen of Sylwia’s Instagram-programmed existence that things get interesting.

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Reviews 

CORPUS CHRISTI – Review by Carol Cling

Carol Cling 0 Comments , , , ,

Corpus Christi explores questions of faith, repentance and redemption, establishing a moral ambiguity that creates undeniable dramatic tension. In this Oscar-nominated film, Polish director Jan Komasa and screenwriter Mateusz Pacewicz ably contrast the protagonist’s two worlds — violent detention center vs. deceptively placid town — and, by extension, the duality of soulful-eyed character.

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Reviews 

COLD WAR – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson 0 Comments , , , ,

Oppressive political policies often come most alive when embedded in strong personal stories. That’s the case in writer/director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War. In 1949 Poland, three workers travel the countryside in a van collecting folk music on audiotape all in honor of the nation. A favored few singers and dancers will be chosen to represent their People’s culture.

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Movie of the Week Reviews 

MOVIE OF THE WEEK January 28, 2019: COMMUNION

Jennifer Merin 0 Comments , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

motw logo 1-35A tenacious Polish teen who’s had to grow up too soon takes center stage in Anna Zamecka’s powerful documentary Communion. The film invests viewers deeply in Ola as she works every angle she can think of to bring her family back together, even though the odds seem stacked against her.

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