Paul Mescal must be stopped

by Cláudio Alves

Something must be done about that Irish menace known as Paul Mescal. He's out there ruining perfectly great songs, attaching such emotional devastation to them one can't help but start tearing up when listening to them. It's akin to a cinema-induced Pavlovian response, and it's making me feel like an insane crybaby. Last year, it was "Under Pressure," forever bound to Aftersun. This year, it's "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the ending to All of Us Strangers. Twisting the horror out of Taichi Yamada's ghost story, Andrew Haigh re-imagined the book's conclusion as a melancholic gut punch, romance played for earnestness rather than betrayal.

It's probably the picture's most divisive element, but it works partly because of Mescal and how fleshed out his depressed stranger grows into being, narrative circumstances notwithstanding. I won't go further because everyone deserves to discover those surprises by themselves. However, I want to pose a couple of questions. First, has any film forever changed the meaning and effect of a song? Second, what did you think about the All of Us Strangers final goodbye?

Review: "Orlando, My Political Biography"

by Cláudio Alves

The future of cinema is in non-fiction. Though conventional narrative cinema still dominates the mainstream, it's within the documentary realm that the medium's most radical innovations tend to manifest, paving a path to the seventh art's tomorrow. That said, to consider cinema in binaries may be holding on to an outdated model. The way forward could entangle the cinema, as Iranian and Portuguese filmmakers have done for decades. In that regard, Orlando, My Political Biography is the future of cinema dressed in ruffs, non-binary, and transgressing past neat categorization.

Philosopher turned director Paul B. Preciado rejects structural dualities in search of something somewhere between academism and anarchic theater, a reflection of his and his subjects' essential queerness…

Click to read more ...

Goodbye, Terence Davies (1945-2023)

by Cláudio Alves

A moment ago, I knew exactly what I wanted to say to you. I have run through this letter in my mind so very often and I wanted to compose something eloquent, but the words just don't seem to be there.

So mused Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea, and so I felt this past week, trying to articulate a fitting farewell to Terence Davies and failing to do so, over and over again. Words don't seem enough to describe what the filmmaker meant to me. Suddenly, my limitations as a writer became obvious, heavy on the soul, almost accusatory, for I can't seem to express what cinema lost on October 7th, 2023. It feels too big a calamity to encompass within a measly obituary. At the same time, this bruisedness that conquers me seems foolish, one of those idiocies of celebrity culture. How can I not feel silly for this grief over someone I've never met and will never meet? How can I worry about this considering everything else going on in the world? I don't know, yet I do.

Eloquence and intelligence, sensibility and sense have slipped from my grasp, so vulnerability might have to be the last resource available to confront this text, clumsy as it might seem. At my wit's end, it's all that's left…

Click to read more ...

Queer Lisboa '23: Sweden's "Opponent" and other festival highlights

by Cláudio Alves

Soon after completing my Toronto Film Festival Coverage, it was time to dive into another fest experience. This turn, it was closer to home, Queer Lisboa being the oldest running film festival in the Portuguese capital, now on its 27th edition. This year, it offered a program rich in stories of marginalized identities and desires, with a particular emphasis on art intent on decolonizing our collective thought and promoting a more progressive view on the labor and lives of sex workers. There was even something for the awards nuts among us – Sweden's official Oscar submission for the 96th Academy Awards, Opponent.

To mark the occasion, let's dive into a selection of titles, starting with that Scandinavian drama, winner of a Jury Special Mention and the Audience Award…

Click to read more ...

TIFF '23: Queer Way of Life

by Cláudio Alves

The 48th Annual Toronto Film Festival may have ended already, but my coverage here at The Film Experience is still going for a few more days. This time, let's talk about the program's queer offerings, highlighting three projects that range from an award-winning World Premiere to a beloved Spanish auteur's first foray into the Western genre. They are the dragged-up double feature of Sophie Dupuis' Solo, which took the Best Canadian Feature prize, and Unicorns, directed by Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd. Finally, there's Pedro Almodóvar's Strange Way of Life, bound to hit American theaters on October 4th, released by Sony Pictures Classics…

Click to read more ...