"Ammonite": An Aching And Incomplete Love Story
Kate Winslet and Saorise Ronan deliver stellar performances in a film that doesn't live up to its potential.

1947 ... The Savchenko family returns to Moscow from evacuation - husband and wife with Kostya's little son. They settle with Grandma Kostya in a huge communal apartment. Street meets the boy with a flock of local boys. Then there were: the division of the territory with the "Sretensky"; trophy movie “Girl of my dreams”; a school with separate education, camp discipline and essays about the border guard Karatsyup. And the monetary reform of 1947, when all of their savings depreciated in an instant, and the boys let out boats from banknotes in puddles.
Kate Winslet and Saorise Ronan deliver stellar performances in a film that doesn't live up to its potential.
Mr. Malcolm's List is a pleasant promenade through a fantasy Regency-era England filled with people of color. For fans of Bridgerton, this is the PG version of the show, but with completely colorblind casting and a much lighter tone.
Adrian Chiarella’s Leviticus is a beautiful, poignant, enraging, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking film about the trauma and harm conversion therapy inflicts on young queer people. Even though its classification as horror holds, the emotional bond between the two main characters, Naim and Ryan, elevates the story into a realistic romantic drama on par with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
“I’m always interested in exploring female fantasy, and the sexy witch is a loaded archetype that is simultaneously about men’s fears and fantasies about women, and women’s feelings of empowerment and agency. So whereas we are used to seeing the sexy witch or the femme fatale from the outside, I wanted to explore her from the inside.” - Anna Biller, on why she made The Love Witch
We can criticize depictions from old media, but they weren’t simply “good for their time”. They were fighting and struggling in a world we can’t imagine.
In Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It (1986), we follow the love life of powerful female protagonist Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) and explore the relationship dynamics she has with her partners. She sees three men simultaneously: Greer Childs, (John Canada Terrell) Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), and Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). Though an 80’s film, She’s Gotta Have It is surprisingly progressive with its themes of female sexuality, although at some points in the film it is handled clumsily. Overall Nola is an incredibly compelling character especially for modern women, as we as a society acknowledge female sensuality more and more without the negative stigma.