The following is a compilation of tweets…

• C’mon C’mon encapsulates many colourful corners of its characters’ lives, while also presenting the worldview of children from reality in parallel. The ambiguity of life is discussed in an accessible manner. It keeps rising above trappings of a formula. A lovely spread of feelings.

• Celine Sciamma’s Petite Maman (streaming on MUBI) is a great addition to the timetravel genre. The film doesn’t get too ambitious, and manages to strike a chord by focusing on its heart rather than its concept. It talks about embracing sadness, and how it arrives at the same is charming writing.

• Pig is a repeatedly subversive story about the weight of having something of meaning in our life. The film is great at generating cosmetic tension only to diffuse it with emotional brevity. Cage anchors this pattern with gruff, understated magnificence. Ambitious, winning film.

• The Innocents is an atmospheric Norwegian horror film that deploys children (all brilliant actors) in a weird tale of superpowers, with stunning escalations at every turn.
  The craft embodies its little protagonists so well. The camera operates at their eye level, the pace is slow too – very much in line with the repetitive nature of their daily routines. Even the writing is eerie, with no inciting incident and an almost passive protagonist.
  The film will leave you with plenty of “hows” and “whys”, but once you zone into the film’s habit of keeping us at an arm’s length, this will make you “feel” a lot. There’s tension, there’s grit, sadness, and horror – all achieved through children alone. Bold filmmaking overall.

• So much about Titane (streaming on MUBI) is incredible. The concept, the events, the execution. Julia Docurnau throws provocative imagery from the get-go and gives all of it ample time to mutate into a larger idea of acceptance. A deeply unsettling watch, but immensely profound in retrospect.

• This terrifyingly acted film from Belgium called Playground, makes us watch helplessly the trauma inflicted by bullying amongst children in school, and how the same also gets passed on with prey becoming predators. The incisively focused direction delivers an intense experience.

• Loved Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter for how it tackles intriguing vantage points from the receiving and perpetrating ends of prison violence. It’s spiritually similar to #FirstReformed, with the narration through a journal, and the affecting, hypnotic visual language. A winner.

• Adam Driver’s physicality is used to brilliant ends in Annette (streaming on MUBI), an opera epic that has seamless flow between its relentlessly dramatic sequences. It isn’t telling a new story by any means, but the amusing exagerrations of the musical genre make it an entrancing experience.

• Shiva Baby (streaming on MUBI) is a riveting comedy! It’s built like a sit-com – the setup is quick, with all characters/reveals dropped early on – but the way the tension is generated by the setting makes the film read like a psychological thriller. A solid debut from Emma Seligman.

• Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero is a hefty drama about a man’s attempts at clearing debts to leave prison. It never gets dramatic about its protagonist’s irrational behaviour, and carries a subdued tone for major events of the film. With its simplicity, it wins sympathy for erring characters.