The title is an allusion to the Chinese gambling game but the story is a treacherous journey with high stakes and a handsome reward. Three friends brave rugged terrain to escape hardship and persecution, surviving on foraged food and their meagre possessions – a pack of ciggies, the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao and three dices – all the while hounded by Red Guards on patrol. Loyalty, friendship and life are bet against a new beginning in the city where the streets are allegedly paved with gold. The odds are against them and the chance of survival is a row of the dice.
The short documentary and second place winner of the Incluvie Short Film Festival, Gender Outlaw: A Bodysurfing Story, challenges any simplistic understanding of trans people.
Having Sersi be the central force in Eternals is unprecedented in its viewpoint and focus, from demonstrating a gentle type of leadership, to being overlooked in a group setting but succeeding in the goal at hand anyways, to having romantic options, to strength and integrity, and majority screen time - for a group that's given less screentime than aliens.
If your upbringing was anything like mine, where the TV acted as an additional parent- there are so many new stories and perspectives to explore.
One of the great achievements of this film is its ability to challenge the mind and to force you to try to process information in a different way than you’re used to.
After the untimely death of his brother by way of an ambush in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the protagonist, ‘81’(Alan Ritchson) unsuccessfully makes several attempts to become an Army Ranger. On his last mission to complete the Ranger selection process he and his squad encounter an otherworldly ‘soldier’.
Severance is about breaking down facades and confronting old models that were once frameworks of our lives. The somewhat subtle message to me is it’s never too late to fall in love, no matter your insecurities.
