Filmmaniak

A surprisingly intricate, mind-twisting film about a student caught in a time loop at a petrol station in the middle of the desert. It’s entertaining, clever, engaging, well acted and packed with ideas. And just when you’re about it write it off as a hopeless story with its accumulating weirdness, because you don’t expect a rational explanation, the denouement knocks you out with how elegantly everything fits together. There are a few screenwriting crutches, but the narrative is superbly structured. In her debut film, the talented director creates a solid atmosphere, raises the viewer’s curiosity and even very skilfully works with suspense in several places.

A feel-good comedy about the joys and fears of parenthood, whose female protagonist tries to find a balance between motherhood and her private life so that, as a full-time stay-at-home mom, she doesn’t start to lose her own identity and creative ambition as an artist in her own time. Despite the trailer, you really shouldn’t expect a horror movie about how one woman becomes a wild predatory beast under the influence of her maternal instincts and suddenly awakened animal instincts. There are roughly six minutes of physical transformations in the whole film and all of them happen in her head. The animal metaphors and hints of body horror, apparently taken from the book on which the film is based (and which are incidental at best and spasmodic at worst), are paradoxically not at all necessary in order for the film to serve as a celebration of mothers, including their pain, patience, and selflessness, which also shows the darker sides of caring for a child, as well as feelings of disappointment, failure, doubt and lack of recognition (which makes the film an ideal, almost therapeutic viewing experience for new parents). In terms of narrative, the film has its shortcomings, as it relies on common stereotypes and literal statements, and the shapeshifting animal motif strangely sticks out a bit like sore thumb, but the dialogue is occasionally sharp and Amy Adams, who puts everything she’s got into her difficult and emotionally varied lead role, is absolutely excellent.

Set on the outskirts of an impoverished neighbourhood in Mumbai, Sister Midnight is a delightfully playful surrealist comedy that slips more into magical realism as time passes. The film is appealing with its deadpan humour and situational comedy as it follows the hardships of the female protagonist, frustrated in an arranged marriage to an incompetent man in a small, dirty dwelling with thin walls and a lot of neighbours. The plot slowly becomes more bizarre and fanciful as occult and slightly horror-oriented motifs start to come into play. However, the entertaining situations are variations on the same themes, so the film develops only a little in terms of the story and it basically runs out of gas after a certain period of time. In any case, the central couple of hopelessly incompatible and awkwardly interacting spouses is excellent.