Whats-On

This is a past event

BBFC Ratingf-rated FilmBelfast Film Festival: Always Shine

CertificateNot Rated
Year2016
GenreThriller
Director(s)SOPHIA TAKAL
CountryUS
Running Time1HR 26MINS
SeasonBelfast Film Festival

Two women, both actresses with differing degrees of success, travel north from Los Angeles to Big Sur for a weekend vacation in Always Shine, Sophia Takal’s twisty, psychological drama.

Both see the trip as an opportunity to reconnect after years of competition and jealousy has driven a wedge between them, but upon arrival to their isolated forest retreat, the pair discovers that their once intimate friendship has deteriorated into forced conversations, betrayals both real and imagined, petty jealousies, and deep-seated resentment.

Beautifully photographed and assuredly directed by Takal, Always Shine wraps itself in an evocative shroud of dread and paranoia that lingers long after the final frame.

 

 

FitzGerald and Davis are both excellent, convincingly turning the smallest, most seemingly harmless discussions into highly charged cat-and-mouse workouts. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

 

Always Shine is a deft, assured movie with a sly self-reflexive undercurrent containing commentary on sexism and self-idealization that’s provocative, and sometimes disturbing. NYT

 

If you’re looking for an antidote to La La Land’s sunny view of Hollywood, this works very well.

FORT WORTH WEEKLYS

An extraordinary dark comedy for those wanting pitched blackness and heaps of lunacy.

LISA GILES-KEDDIE


An error occurred while loading this page