Raindance 2021 Archives - Awesome Friday!

9 November 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘I’m Wanita’ highlights how hard it is to achieve dreams, but that doesn’t make it worth giving up

Breaking into the music business is difficult work. Weeks, months, and years of gigging and living poor are often the story, and they are again with Australia’s self-proclaimed queen of Honky Tonk, Wanita. The determined but divisive character has spent her entire life trying to break big in country music in Australia. But, despite possessing a voice specifically tuned to the classic style, she’s had trouble getting out of her own way.

8 November 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘Where’s Rose’ is creepy, socially relevant horror

Horror is one of the essential genes we have, even though it’s treated as an afterthought by awards bodies and film snobs. It is one of the genres of film that sees the most creativity and one that, when deployed right, can shine light onto areas of our world in more interesting and relatable ways.

Where’s Rose is one of these.

7 November 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘All Sorts’ is a delightfully absurd workplace comedy

The workplace is a lovely place to set a story. It is a place with multiple people, with various characters and, depending on the job, there are plenty of things to do or ignore. All Sorts, a quirky new romantic comedy set in a data management company, falls into the latter category.

6 November 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘The Drowning of Arthur Braxton’ has noble intent but misses the mark

Stop me if you have heard this one before: a young man is bullied at school. His home life is broken thanks to absent parents (one physically, one emotionally). Miserable, he runs away from home and finds a magical thing that helps him regain his self-confidence and fix his life.

This is The Drowning of Arthur Braxton. His mother is gone, his dad is an alcoholic, and while hiding in an abandoned Edwardian bathhouse, he finds a young naked woman who turns out to be a water nymph who is destined to fall in love with him. If you think that there will be some twist that makes this more original than the other “boy finds magic fixes life” stories you’ve read, I’m here to warn you that there isn’t.

5 November 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘A Bird Flew In’ is a beautifully shot and well-acted drama

The cinema of the pandemic remains an ongoing thing, which is appropriate given that the pandemic itself does as well. This time out, another character piece shot in gorgeous black and white follows the cast and crew of a film after they have been sent home in the early days of lockdown.

30 October 20218 January 2022

Raindance ’21 Review: ‘Listen’ is heavy-handed, but heart-wrenching

In the United Kingdom exists a system of child welfare. That is to say, like all first world countries, there is a governmental body whose sole task is to look out for the wellbeing of children. The UK government has a strict system, and one outcome of children being removed from a family is forced adoption. Forced adoption is exactly what it sounds like: if the state deems the parents unfit, they will adopt the children out to a family they believe are.

This practice has generated fierce criticism, especially from those who believe that the system errs far too often on the side of adopting the children rather than reuniting the family. Spoiler alert: Listen is made by people who share this belief.

29 October 202129 October 2021

Heads Up: Raindance Film Festival is on now!

Good news UK friends! Raindance Film Festival is on now! This year we will be doing some limited coverage of the festival so look for some reviews on the site using the Raindance 2021 tag!

The full list of features playing at the festival is available on the Raindance website. This festival is geo-locked to the UK so whenever possible we will include Canadian distribution information.

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