SHINE 57 (2019)

These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.

This powerful story shines with poetic animation, an exploration of deeper truths, and the protagonist's complex search for identity.

Documented human suffering is never easy to view or read about and is understandably triggering for many people, but it can be educational, and education is a key to change. An overwhelming amount queer people worldwide (and in my own country) have it far worse than I could imagine, and documentaries such as Welcome to Chechnya bring issues to light that certain groups of people would never see.

Eternals is an interesting concept and unique visuals, but slow pacing and rushed character development suggests it should have been a mini-series.

Zombie apocalypses have been metaphors for late-stage predatory capitalism, but never a system disrupter that brings about freedom.

'The Patient' is bound by four walls and a mediocre ending that leaves you wanting more.