Based on the 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift” by Alexander Maksik, set just after the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, “Drift” aims for impressionistic insight but is ultimately manipulative and reductive. Maksik’s screenplay, which he co-wrote with Susanne Farrell, sees its heroine Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”) as nothing more than a vessel to explore an outsider’s view of the trauma inflicted by war.

Continue reading ‘Drift’ Review: Cynthia Erivo Stars In An Impressionistic, But Hollow Refugee Drama [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Director Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir: Part II” is a luminous, layered piece of work about recollection, remembrance, and memory. It’s also an exploratory meta-experience about filmmaking and the act of evoking an experience and a feeling. Obviously, the second part to her first film— “The Souvenir,” a hit at Sundance in 2019— ‘Part II’ continues the story of Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne), the surrogate for Hogg in a semi-autobiographical account of her experiences at film school in London in the 1980s.

Continue reading Joanna Hogg Talks ‘The Souvenir Part II,’ Meta Experiences, Reflective Catharthis & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

Joanna Hogg’s 2019 film “The Souvenir” made a big splash at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival that year. The film went on to win the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the festival that year and was a critic’s favorite, ending up on several Top 10 lists at year’s end. Now, Hogg’s follow-up “The Souvenir Part II” gets its New York premiere with a screening at the New York Film Festival this week, after its world premiere earlier this year in Cannes.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir Part II’ Trailer: Joanna Hogg’s Memory Tribute Is A Meta-Filmmaking Impression at The Playlist.

Midway through Joanna Hogg’s seismic “The Souvenir: Part II,” a continuation to her 2019 feature begotten from personal remembrances, her fictional alter ego, Julie (Honor Swinton-Byrne), sits in a van surrounded by the team of student filmmakers helping with her thesis project. The director of photography berates them for the inconsistency of the production attributed to Julie’s scattered-brained process.

READ MORE: Cannes Film Festival 2021 Preview: 25 Films To Watch

She remains silent, but anger punctures her.

Continue reading With ‘The Souvenir: Part II’ Joanna Hogg Completes Her Introspective Masterwork [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

There are a few strange quirks about the year 2019 in feature film performance. Unusually — and it will be interesting to see how this translates to the Oscars — it feels like the men had the edge in terms of the sheer volume of masterful, often career-redefining acting, making the Best Actor category likely the more competitive one than Best Actress, which will be the first time that’s been the case in a while.

Continue reading The Best Performances Of 2019 at The Playlist.

CANNES – Having been lucky enough to sit down with Tilda Swinton many times over the years I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s reached yet another pinnacle in her career.  The Oscar winner for “Michael Clayton” rarely makes a bad choice and that’s often because she’s in high demand by some of the greatest filmmakers of the modern era.  This past October she reunited with Luca Guadagnino for “Suspiria.”  At Cannes she’s celebrating the premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” and either later this year or early next she’ll once again join a Wes Anderson ensemble for “The French Dispatch.”  And all this comes off the critically acclaimed Sundance drama “The Souvenir” and a pivotal role in a little movie you might have heard of, “Avengers: Endgame.”  In many ways, Swinton has become auteur cinema’s Meryl Streep meaning she keeps hitting one great performance out of the park again and again and again.

Continue reading Tilda Swinton Talks ‘Dead Don’t Die,’ ‘Souvenir’ & That ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Cameo [Interview] at The Playlist.

Joanna Hogg has long been a critical favorite, but with her fourth film, “The Souvenir,” which was picked up by A24 after impressing audiences at Sundance, she seems poised to pick up legions of new fans (our Sundance review). “The Souvenir” stars Honor Swinton Byrne (daughter of Tilda Swinton, who plays her mother in this film) as Julie, a young film student in the 1980s who falls into a tempestuous romance with Anthony (Tom Burke), a darkly charismatic young man whose quick wit and aristocratic bearing hide a serious drug addiction.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’ Director Joanna Hogg Discusses On-Camera Discoveries And Exploring Memory [Interview] at The Playlist.

One imagines it would be incredibly intimidating for any woman to perform opposite Tilda Swinton in their first major role, imagine if the Academy Award-winning acting idol was also your mother. Honor Swinton Byrne will likely not be accused of having a career owed to nepotism, going off earlier reactions to “The Souvenir” – winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Award at this past Sundance.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’ Trailer: Honor Swinton Byrne Acts Alongside Her Mother In The Acclaimed Sundance Romance at The Playlist.

Survived pain arises as both a vehicle for growth and catalyst for the revaluation of one’s impetus in Joanna Hogg’s introspectively awe-inspiring stroke of virtuosity “The Souvenir,” an artifact of semi-autobiographical memory through which the director thoughtfully analyzes a toxic bond with an enigmatic lover.

READ MORE: Sundance 2019 Film Festival Preview: 25 Must-See Films

Hogg, an auteur orchestrating the reconstruction of a harrowing episode partially from her past, correlates such romantic tragedy with the gestation of her artistic sensibilities.

Continue reading ‘The Souvenir’: Suffering Yields Reinvention For a Young Artist in Joanna Hogg’s Exquisitely Personal Drama [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.