What is justice?

 

All Your Faces (2023)

Written & directed by Jeanne Herry this film has an ensemble cast. Three people working in restorative justice work to bring peace to victims and perpetrators.

As an advert for how restorative justice works and the possible benefits this film is really good, I would say where it falls down is it does not show where the process fails or does not work. To keep things a bit more realistic I think we would have need to have seen that the process is not perfect and it does not work on every one. Great performances from the cast, especially Adele Exarchopoulos in a very tough roll.

4/5

Peasants

 

The Alto Knights (2025)

Directed by Barry Levinson this film stars Robert De Niro (twice), Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis and Katherine Narducci. Two Mafia bosses who were childhood friends fall apart.

Covering familiar ground there is not much new to this mob film. Never my favourite genre this film does nothing to rise above what you expect. About the only remarkable thing is De Niro pulling off two leads in the same film.

3/5

Not that holy

 

His Holiness Pope Leo XIII (1898)

Directed by William K. L. Dickson this is an early short film. Several clips involving Pope Leo XIII.

Possibly one of the earliest films to string together a number of shots. Unfortunately the image quality is a bit milky in places, not always easy to pick out details. No doubt an interesting historical record if not that entertaining.

2/5

Living life

 

Where Have You Been (2021)

Directed by Colman Haynes this short film stars George Hanover and Paul Sparks. A woman visits the man she left nearly twenty years ago.

A nice little look at how time does not heal all wounds. I enjoy how the characters are subtly standoffish with each other, very real. Nicely done short.

3/5

Kinda beta

 

The Alpha Invention (2015)

Directed by Mark Towers this film stars Billy Boyd and William Hope. A man talks to an AI he has invented.

There is something to be said for the way this film does predict the rise of LLM but it does not go into a lot of depth on AI. The main thing here is the twist as the film is obvious to predict up to that point. Would help if Billy Boyd could pronounce Turing Test correctly.

2/5

Punch, possibly drunk, no love

 

Has He Hit Me? (1897)

Directed by William K. L. Dickson this short film stars Fred & Tom McNaughton. A simple slapstick boxing match.

Pretty fun for what it is. Survives with good image quality. A nice little piece of history.

3/5

She's watching

 

This Time Away (2019)

Directed by Magali Barbe this film stars Timothy Spall and Jessica Ellerby. A widower befriends a robot.

Fairly simple and mostly heart warming short even if the twist at the end does make me a smidge uncomfortable. Well done, does not get overly sentimental. Maybe a little more subtlety in the dialogue would have been nice.

3/5