Film Picks: Minds Film Festival, Rest & Relax, Speak No Evil
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Libby Hunsdale in Poppy.
PHOTO: MINDS FILM FESTIVAL
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Minds Film Festival 2024
Minds and Singapore Film Society are presenting seven international feature films that highlight the individuality and resilience of people with special needs as part of 2024’s festival, which ends on Sept 22.
From New Zealand comes Poppy (2021, PG, 98 minutes, screens on Sept 21, 1.30pm, at Shaw Lot One). Poppy (Libby Hunsdale) is a young woman with Down syndrome trying to exert her independence, a fact that worries her elder brother Dave (Ari Boyland). Her dream of becoming a motor mechanic is frustrated by Dave, who wants to protect her, but she is determined to not be defined by her disability.
New Zealand writer-director Linda Niccol’s debut feature has received positive reviews. The Alliance Of Women Film Journalists called Hunsdale a “sparkly, charismatic lead character who takes the helm, allowing us to be swept away in the ups and downs of her life and of those around her”.
Where: Shaw Theatres at Lido, Waterway Point, Lot One and Nex mindsfilmfest.com
MRT: Orchard, Punggol, Choa Chu Kang, Serangoon
When: Until Sept 22, various timings
Admission: $15 (general admission), $10 (student), free for Developmental Disability Registry cardholders
Info:
Rest & Relax
The Asian Film Archive presents its Rest & Relax programme, featuring 12 screenings that “toy with our desire to unwind from our lives, and return us to our real world through satire, comedy and glimmers of hope”.
(From left) Kwon Hae-hyo, Isabelle Huppert and Cho Yun-hee in A Traveler’s Needs.
PHOTO: FINECUT
From prolific and celebrated South Korean film-maker Hong Sang-soo comes the drama-comedy A Traveler’s Needs (2024, PG, 90 minutes, screens on Sept 22 at 5pm).
It stars French actress Isabelle Huppert in her third collaboration with Hong, after In Another Country (2012) and Claire’s Camera (2017). She plays Iris, a mysterious recorder-playing woman living in Seoul who pays the rent by teaching French to locals, using an idiosyncratic method of her own devising.
Entertainment publication Variety calls the film a “short, shimmery comedy of the elusive human condition that invites the audience to fill in the blanks with the assumptions we make of strangers or superficial acquaintances”.
Where: Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise str.sg/F4Ei
MRT: City Hall/Bras Basah
When: Until Sept 29, various timings
Admission: $10 (general), $9 (concession)
Info:
Speak No Evil (NC16)
110 minutes, now showing
★★★★☆
James McAvoy in Speak No Evil.
PHOTO: UIP
The Daltons – Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy) and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) – meet a nice British family while on holiday in Italy. The Americans get along so well with Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son Ant (Dan Hough) that they accept an invitation to spend a few days with them in rural England.
When the Daltons arrive, however, they find that Paddy has a more rundown home than they expected, but the Americans try to make the best of it. Soon, they are forced to question everything that Paddy has been telling them.
The story would fail if the magnetic McAvoy were not adept at playing the charming sociopath, the spider who draws prey into his web with the lures of sincerity, compassion and alpha-male masculinity.
English writer-director James Watkins is a creepy-movie specialist whose resume ranges from Eden Lake (2008) – the story of a couple stalked by street toughs – to the terrifying supernatural horror of The Woman In Black (2012).
Watkins, who also adapted the 2022 Danish film of the same name on which Speak No Evil is based, expertly ratchets up the tension, which goes from squirm-inducing social discomfort to full-on horror over the course of the movie.
Correction note: Admission charges for the Minds Film Festival have been updated in this version of the story.
