Alissa Simon: Last News

Alissa Simon Film Critic It’s already been a good year for the English cinematographer turned writer-director Molly Manning Walker. A film that she shot, “Scrapper,” won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, as well as praise for her vibrant lensing. Now, her first feature, the intimate, near-anthropological “How to Have Sex,” premieres as part of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. And to top it off, MUBI has already acquired the title for major territories. “How to Have Sex” follows three female teens on a summer holiday in the loud, hectic party town of Malia, Crete. Having just completed their GCSE exams, the English trio are ready to let off steam by drinking, dancing and getting laid. This latter goal ranks as the most sensitive for petite Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), who still retains her virginity. The film shows how having sex as a teenager is complicated and the role that peer pressure and consent (or the lack of it) plays.

Alissa Simon Film Critic U.K. sales agent Mr. Smith Entertainment is launching one of the Marché’s most anticipated genre titles: “Grafted,” from Kiwi helmer Sasha Rainbow. The smart, surprising, female-led body-horror film marks the feature debut of the L.A.-based, Wellington-born Rainbow, who took a quick break from post-production in New Zealand to talk to Variety.  Penned by Mia Maramara, Hweiling Ow and Lee Murray, “Grafted” follows a bright but socially awkward Chinese scholarship student who arrives in Auckland to study biology and hopes to continue the work of her late scientist father. Rainbow was brought on board by Murray Francis, one of the film’s producers.

Alissa Simon Film Critic The ninth edition of Iceland’s Stockfish Film & Industry Festival, which runs March 23 to April 2, is innovating under an ambitious new team that includes one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch, Hrönn Kristinsdottír (“Lamb”), as artistic director and festival veteran Carolina Salas as managing director. Among the highlights will be a masterclass with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister (“Tár”), who is currently in Iceland shooting the fourth season of HBO’s “True Detective.” The screening program opens with Ukraine’s “Pamfir,” directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and includes tributes to Oscar-nominated Polish helmer Jerzy Skolimowski and U.K. producer Mike Downey, recipient of the fest’s first “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” kudos.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Icelandic writer-director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson (“Under the Tree”) makes a smooth transition to English-language directing with the high-concept comedy “Northern Comfort,” co-written with longtime collaborators Halldór Laxness Halldórsson and Tobias Munthe. It centers on a disparate group of people who share a disabling fear of air travel, which they are trying to overcome through a high-end fearless flyers course. As a final challenge, the class is scheduled for a short, roundtrip “exposure” flight during which they should face and conquer their phobias. But this practical plan soon runs into some literal and figurative turbulence. Combining human drama and absurdist comedy, “Northern Comfort” should fly into other festivals before making a comfortable landing at a boutique art-house distributor or streamer.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Overline: Hed: By Alissa Simon “Subtraction,” from idiosyncratic Iranian helmer-writer Mani Haghighi (“Men at Work,” “Modest Reception,” “A Dragon Arrives!”) is a tense Hitchcockian thriller set in Tehran, where a heavy, non-stop rainfall signals a lingering malaise. There, a young couple come across their doppelgängers. The film premiered at the Toronto festival. The idea for the plot grew out of the helmer’s long-ago trip to Southwest Iran to look at places where the Iran-Iraq war took place.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Danish director-writer Malou Reymann’s sophomore feature, “Unruly,” premiered in the Toronto festival, and is an affecting drama set in the 1930s about  a rebellious teen forced into an institution, the real-life Sprogø Women’s Home.  At a time when women’s control of their bodies is under attack, your film carries a special resonance. Is what took place at the Kellersk Institute on Sprogø island widely known in Denmark?  Among young people, very few know about the Sprogø Women’s Home and the whole historical context. And they are angry that this wasn’t something taught in school. The whole political aspect of the sterilization laws is not something people know about. Denmark was actually the first European country to make eugenic-based sterilization laws, so when Nazi Germany made their laws they looked to the Danish laws. It all came from trying to control the gene pool of society. And it was developed at the same time as the welfare system, so the concept was that if the state needs to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves, then we need to reduce the number of people who can’t take care of themselves.  

Alissa Simon Film Critic This fall, Arab filmmakers will be out in force at such prestigious international fests as Venice and Toronto. Venice alone boasts six features from first- and second-time Arab directors in its official sections, plus an additional six works-in-progress at its Final Cut Production Bridge. Meanwhile, Toronto opens with “The Swimmers,” a drama from U.K. helmer Sally El Hosaini based on the journey of Syrian sisters and Olympic hopefuls Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled the war in their home country for Germany. Yusra competed in the 2016 and 2021 Summer Olympics. An additional six Arab films will screen at the Canadian fest. Dek: Arab filmmakers embrace genres and issues as festivals and distributors take notice

Alissa Simon Film Critic By ALISSA SIMON  Actress, producer and musician Trace Lysette, known for her recurring role as Shea on all five seasons of Amazon’s “Transparent,” and for her appearance alongside Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu in “Hustlers,” takes her career to a new level with a heart-rending turn in the title role of Venice competition title “Monica.”  • What drew you to this project? What stuck out to me most are the universal themes. A lot of people can relate to a loved one nearing the end of this physical life. Also, just the fact that families in general go through a lot together. There are strains on relationships, drama, humor, sadness… all of these things. This movie just happens to place a trans woman at the center of it all and we get to see it through her eyes. Which unfortunately is very rare and maybe even unheard of in film.  

Alissa Simon Film Critic“Every big story is made of little stories,” a novice Egyptian newsreel director patiently explains to those who question his footage in the epic historical drama “Image of Victory.” It’s also a truism that pithily describes veteran Israeli helmer Avi Nesher’s engrossing 19th feature, which highlights young people during a dramatic time of history and brims with small episodes of courage, passion and humor.Inspired by real events, the film provides a nuanced look at circumstances leading up to the June 1948 fighting at Kibbutz Nitzanim, viewed from both the Egyptian and Israeli perspectives. Its consideration of how storytelling and visual images can be weaponized makes it a tale with great resonance for these times.

Alissa Simon Film Critic“How Saba Kept Singing” seeks to understand how Polish Jewish teenager David Wisnia survived nearly three years in Auschwitz. The editing and vague timelines make it seem as if this latest doc from multi-hyphenate Sara Taksler (“Tickling Giants”) is revealing something previously unreported, even though a 2019 New York Times article already divulged the touching love story that underlies the “How” of the title.