David R. Walker

Kneecap

Director: Rich Peppiatt

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker, Jessica Reynolds, Simone Kirby, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí

Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Language: Irish with English Subtitles

Festivals: European Film Festival / Sundance Film Festival / South by South West Film Festival

Warning: This film has rude lyrics and portrays copious amounts of drug taking.

Director Rich Peppiatt’s first full length narrative film Kneecap which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and is an official entry for Ireland’s submission for Best Foreign Language film at the 2025 Oscars is certainly worth seeing. A frenetic film about the rise of the influential and detrimental Irish hip hop band Kneecap in which the band members play themselves in this fast paced quirky film about the rise of Irish hip hop on the streets of Belfast and is almost like Trainspotting but set in Northern Ireland.

Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí all play themselves as the tyrannical trio who preach the significance of hip hop in the Irish language, a form of subversive behaviour against the British and general normative society.

Luckily the film’s band members are supported by screen actors including a superb appearance by Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs) as Arlo O Cairealláin, the mysterious father of Naoise. Simone Kirby plays the agoraphobic mother of Naoise, Dolores Ó Cairealláin who rallies her son’s interest through the hairdressing network in Belfast.

Set in West Belfast in the later 2010’s, Kneecap is an explosive and foul-mouthed portrayal of renegade lads whose drug induced rise to fame helped with huge doses of MDMA, ketamine along with other snorting substances.

Kneecap is anti-establishment and captured the zeitgeist of a generation of young Irish youths who wanted to stamp their own Irish identity on a country which is effectively still being governed by England.

Besides the misbehaviour and the rude lyrics, Kneecap is about the authentic rap music, which was always a style of music which was subversive, counter-culture and aimed at the underdog ready to attract the lunatic fringe.

With great performances by all the bandmembers and a stunning supporting role by Fassbender who is channelling all the Irish side of his German-Irish heritage, Kneecap is an insanely entertaining film about the rise of Irish language hip hop, the politicization of indigenous languages and how fame often immortalizes the miscreants of society.

Rich Peppiatt’s thoroughly entertaining and a visually impressive film, hugely inspired by Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Kneecap is a must see film. Energetic and absolutely boisterous, Kneecap gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing.

The Other Way Around

Director: Jonas Trueba

Cast: Itsaso Arana, Vito Sanz, Fernando Trueba

Running Time: 112 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10  

Language: Spanish with English Subtitles

Festivals: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Festival

Madrid based film director Jonas Trueba presents an unconventional romantic drama The Other Way Around set in the Spanish capital. This slightly bizarre, self-reflexive film focuses on a hip young couple who work in the film industry who decide that it’s time to separate after being together for 15 years, a sort of conscious uncoupling, a term celebrity couple Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) and Coldplay Lead singer Chris Martin used when they parted company.

The couple are Ale played by Itasso Arana and Alex played by Vito Sanz who not only tell all their family and friends that they are separating on the last day of the European summer, 22^nd September to be precise, but that in preparation for this event they are throwing a massive party. This would be an event celebrating their separation as opposed to them getting together.

Director Jonas Trueba presents a thoroughly bizarre comedy with lots of rapid fire Spanish dialogue in which both man and woman have almost an existential crisis in their relationship, the types of relationships so brilliantly portrayed in some of Woody Allen’s earlier films like Husbands and Wives.

While Ale and Alex prepare for their separation much to the horror of their friends and family, they inadvertently fall back in love with each other.

The Other Way Round is filled with European film references, however as a film which is nearly two hours long, the story doesn’t achieve any form of cathartic release and there is no sense of a neatly tied up plot, instead ending in a strange montage of what their separation party at Ale’s father’s house would have looked like.

Director Jonas Trueba’s film which was presented at the 2024 Cannes directors’ fortnight seems strange and slightly repetitive which was perhaps the point of the film, given the couple’s philosophical inclinations and their preoccupation with Danish philosopher Kierkegaard’s 1843 book Repetition.

The Other Way Around is a strange romantic comedy about how a couple decided sensibly to uncouple.

With a distinctly Spanish style, The Other Way Around is recommended viewing for those that like obscure European cinema.

The Other Way Around gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is a fascinating film, except when the self-reflexivity detracts from the narrative.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: 2024

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Danny deVito, Willem Dafoe

Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

To make a sequel 36 years after the original film is always a risk. Tom Cruise pulled it off but Michael Keaton doesn’t.  

In this case, director Tim Burton returns to direct Beetlejuice: 2024 with Michael Keaton returning as the pesky phantom Beetlejuice along with Oscar nominee Winona Ryder (The Age of Innocence) as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as the hilarious Delia.

Beetlejuice 2024 is a simulacrum of all previous Gothic fantasy films laced with dark humour and serves as a fitting tribute to the highly successful Addams Family films.

When Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid, superbly played by rising star Jenny Ortega gets taken to the underworld by a mysteriously creepy young man, Lydia has to summon up the crazy Beetlejuice to enlist his help in tracking her down before she boards the soul train, with the last stop being the Pearly Gates.

Meanwhile down in the underworld, Beetlejuice’s crazy ex-wife Delores wildly played by Italian actress Monica Bellucci (Spectre) in a role which pays tribute to Anjelica Huston, is a member of a soul sucking death cult and is out to exact revenge and plans to kill Beetlejuice.

Oscar nominee Michael Keaton (Birdman) must have been offered a substantial sum to return as Beetlejuice yet one thinks it was more a cinematic opportunity to reunite with Tim Burton who directed Keaton in the original Batman film way back when Jack Nicholson played the Joker in 1989. To put that in perspective it was when I was a teenager.

Filled with lots of 1980’s nuances and some fantastic scenes including the Soul Train dance number, Beetlejuice 2024 starts off really promising with some great supporting actors including Justin Theroux (The Girl on the Train) as Lydia’s slimy producer fiancée Rory and Catherine O’Hara making the most of her recent fame as Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek as she reprises the role of the eccentric Delia. Soon Beetlejuice turns literally into a nightmare trip of pastiche and unoriginality as Tim Burton rips off recent films like Dune while paying homage to older more memorable films like Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby.

Unfortunately, the story of Beetlejuice 2024 is chaotic nonsense and despite the odd laugh and garish ghoul, the film comes off as a desperate attempt to reclaim the original success of the 1988 version.

While the makeup is brilliant, the storyline gets derailed by some truly bizarre dream sequences which feature a mash up of A Nightmare Before Christmas and Addams Family Values.

The idea was there, but the execution failed in every sense, except for Monica Bellucci and Jenna Ortega the rest of the cast did not look happy to reprise their roles which should have stayed buried at the end of the 1980’s.

Sometimes the original film is enough without having to make a sequel so long afterwards. For all its craziness, Beetlejuice 2024 failed to impress and gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10. Infantile and slightly inane.

Blink Twice

Director: Zoe Kravitz

Cast: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Levon Hawke

Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

The best decision that first time director Zoe Kravitz did, was change the title of this first time feature directorial from Pussy Island to Blink Twice.

Imagine trying to market a film called Pussy Island?

Actress turned director Zoe Kravitz casts Channing Tatum as mysterious tech billionaire Slater King in Blink Twice opposite an amazing Naomi Ackie (I Wanna Dance with Somebody) as Frida, a struggling Los Angeles waitress who along with her friend Jess played by Alia Shawkat are invited to his private island in an unknown location.

Like in director Mike Mylod’s The Menu, the audience knows that something terrifying is about to happen, but not sure what. Blink Twice is no different except lacking the charisma of Ralph Fiennes, this is a mystery horror thriller starring a host of ensemble actors including Christian Slater (True Romance, Interview with a Vampire) as Vic, Simon Rex as Cody, Oscar winner Geena Davis (The Accidental Tourist) as Stacy and Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet, Dune) as Rich. There is also a fiery Adria Arjona (Hitman) as Sarah along with Levon Hawke as Lucas.

Frida and Slater and a host of guests arrive via private jet at the sumptuous yet creepy estate, a red villa amidst lush greenery seeping with poisonous snakes and shifty servants.

Blink Twice takes a while to get going, but the intensity of the narrative is held together by some inventive colour saturation and gaudy production design by Roberto Bonelli, which frames the anguish of the characters against stark primary colours as their social anxiety heightens. Zoe Kravitz’s decision to film most of the characters in Extreme Close Up adds to the psychological trauma of what is really occurring.

Amidst the lavish dinners and decadent pool parties, with all the ladies in white and the men looking lecherous, Frida’s friend Jess suddenly goes missing and soon all the luxury of their plush surroundings vanish when Frida tries to piece together what is really happening polaroid style.

Channing Tatum plays the sinister billionaire and steps out of his comfort zone as a quasi-villain. Blink Twice really belongs to Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona as they soon discover that their drug induced dinners served an entirely nefarious purpose. The nasty characters get horribly messy very quickly amidst the pink mimosas and the champagne cocktails on this private island in which the men are catching more than just fish.

As a directorial debut Zoe Kravitz’s film Blink Twice is slightly challenging in places, yet the narrative doesn’t quite hold together and some of the extra characters are wasted. Fortunately for all its garish quirks, Blink Twice has a fascinating twist at the end.

Not for sensitive viewers, Blink Twice is a psychological thriller for the Instagram generation which gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. If you enjoyed Saltburn and The Menu, then watch Blink Twice.

It Ends with Us

Director: Justin Baldoni

Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar, Kevin McKidd, Amy Morton, Hasan Minhaj

Running Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

We thought romance had died a sudden death on the cinema screen recently.

Luckily director Justin Baldoni’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestselling novel It Ends With Us has lavishly appeared on the cinema screens.

American actress Blake Lively takes on the role of Lily Bloom, a beautiful young woman who after briefly mourning the death of her father in her home town of Plethora, Maine, moves to Boston, Massachusetts to start a new life and open a florist.

On the rooftop of a swish apartment building in downtown Boston, Lily meets the handsome Ryle Kincaid a neurosurgeon who she initially resists but then he sweeps her off her feet. Lily Bloom superbly portrayed by Blake Lively (The Age of Adaline, The Town, Café Society, Savages), who proves she has the acting skill to navigate a complex role, is still dealing with the trauma of having an abusive father Andrew Bloom, briefly played by Kevin McKidd (Tulip Fever, Made of Honor) while dealing with an overbearing but well intentional mother Jenny Bloom wonderfully played by Chicago PD’s Amy Morton.

It Ends With Us is a beautifully crafted film which deals with subtle psychological abuse suffered by women in relationships with violent overbearing men.

While Lily’s florist thrives, conflict in her life appears when she accidentally sees her teen lover again after many years, a smouldering Atlas Corrigan superbly played by Brandon Sklenar (Midway, Vice) last seen on the small screen in the ravishing series 1923 playing a hunter Spencer Dutton in colonial Africa. It’s clear that the sparks between Atlas and Lily have not died and soon their relationship rekindles.

On every level, It Ends with Us is a beautiful romance with some skilfully interwoven themes about abuse, female empowerment and finding love. Blake Lively is sensational in this film, in every scene she looks like a supermodel. An absolutely beautiful woman to play the central character in a contested love triangle peppered with abuse, admiration and adjustment.

It Ends With Us is primarily aimed at a female audience but it was refreshing to see how full the cinema was to witness a film devoid of violence, special effects, action and gratuitous nudity. Sometimes it’s a romance that will fill the cinema seats and in this case It Ends with Us delivers on every level with some sensational lead actors.

It Ends with Us gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing for those that have read the novel and want to experience a riveting romantic drama on the big screen. See it now!

Deadpool & Wolverine

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Channing Tatum, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Garner, Chris Evans, Henry Cavill, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Aaron Stanford

Running Time: 2 hours and 8 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

You can picture the writers and studio executives at a pitching session for new film ideas for a North American summer blockbuster. Let’s put Deadpool and Wolverine in a film together. Let’s take a reprobate like Deadpool and a washed up X-man and see if they gel.

In director Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, superstars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman team up for that bitchy bromance film that gives audiences that warm fuzzy feeling needed in a time of global chaos and strife.

Note the title of this film is not Deadpool vs Wolverine, it is Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s a buddy superhero movie in which the crazy duo enter a different space time paradigm thrusted upon them by the immaculately dressed Mr Paradox brilliantly played with a brittle British hysteria by Golden Globe and Emmy winner (Succession) Matthew Macfadyen, who appears to be the villain. Soon the fast talking and annoying Deadpool and the grumpy hard drinking Wolverine confront the real villain Xavier’s sister Cassandra Nova expertly played with sociopathic coolness by Emmy winner (The Crown) Emma Corrin.

Both Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen balance the crazy antics of Deadpool & Wolverine which at times goes completely off the reservation with foul language and bone cracking brutality, not to mention sexual innuendo and inappropriate comments.

With a host of screenwriters including Ryan Reynolds, the script pokes lots of self-reflexive media fun at the studios including 20^th Century Fox, Fox news and of course the parent company of Marvel, Disney. Deadpool & Wolverine looks like a nightmarish pastiche of all past superhero films which will satisfy the geek squad.

While Deadpool is aspiring to become an Avenger, Wolverine wants to go back and save the rest of the Xmen, the dynamic duo come across a weird group of superheroes stranded in a Mad Max inspired wasteland, a significant nod to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

See cameos by big stars including Wesley Snipes (Blade, New Jack City, One Night Stand) as Blade, Jennifer Garner (Daredevil, Juno) as Elektra and Channing Tatum (The Lost City, Magic Mike) as the card throwing Gambit.

Deadpool & Wolverine contains some very weird and downright silly scenes while constantly pushing the envelope which is a bridge too far for Disney. Maybe this is auto correct for all of Disney’s political correct remakes of the last 5 years.

If you like your action bloody and your superheroes foulmouthed and disgruntled then catch Deadpool & Wolverine in cinemas now. Unfortunately the craziness weighed down any narrative relevance making the plot indistinguishable despite the humorous banter and high production values.

Better than Deadpool 2 but not as good as one expects, yet still entertaining, Deadpool & Wolverine gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. Recommended viewing strictly for fans of Marvel films.

Twisters

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Glen Powell, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Daryl McCormack, David Corenswet, Harry Haddon-Paton, Kiernan Shipka

Running Time: 2 hours and 2 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung takes on a big budget blockbuster with the 2024 remake of the 1996 film Twisters with Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton.

The 21^st century version has a host of hot young stars including Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) as Kate Carter a meteorologist and Oklahoma storm chaser, Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hitman) as the all American macho guy Tyler who is basically a hillbilly with a YouTube channel, Antony Ramos as Kate’s friend and suspected love interest Javi along with David Corenswet as Javi’s suspicious business partner.

With the exception of a brief scene in New York, most of Twisters takes place in Tornado alley in Oklahoma in the mid-west, with expansive fields and dangerous tornados that can crush a village in seconds.

Five years after Kate experiences a dreadful tragedy, Javi visits her in New York and begs her to return to Oklahoma for the Tornado season as she is a great storm spotter.

Kate relents and returns with him to the Mid-West where she meets a whole motley crew of storm chasers including the brash and boisterous Tyler, perfectly played with loads of Southern Charm by Glen Powell, whose ability as a leading man is proving exceptional in the 2024 film year with leads in Anyone But You and Richard Linklater’s film Hit Man.

Tyler has to contend with a prickly Kate, wonderfully played by a blonde haired Daisy Edgar-Jones as she deals with her past trauma, her ability to chase storms and her abrupt mother, a scene stealer by Golden Globe winner Maura Tierney (The Affair) who encourages Tyler to chase after her love lost daughter.

Speaking of love, it is a great pity that director Lee Isaac Chung did not focus more on the romance between Kate and Tyler.

Instead of sexualising his main characters, both of whom are gorgeous eye-candy, they just become a crazy couple trying to survive one tornado after another, a brutal force of nature that destroys with a vengeance rodeo shows, cinemas and whole villages. Oklahoma just gets ripped to shreds while the only character that has an interesting development is Javi as he fights off corporate greed to try and save Middle America.

As tornados destroy everything, Twisters doesn’t develop beyond the action sequences and the film just presents a series of characters caught in a bizarre world of dangerous storm chasing without any cathartic release. Audiences should look out for actor David Corenswet in Twisters, the tall handsome dude who has been cast as the new Superman in the DC Comics film coming out in 2025.

Besides the tornado wranglers, Twisters doesn’t offer anything more than a series of action sequences involving an angry mother nature while the characters drift helplessly in a storm.

Twisters is a great popcorn film but director Lee Isaac Chung should stick to family dramas and not be asked to direct Hollywood blockbuster films that need a huge box office return.

Twisters gets a film rating of 7 out of 10, saved by some awesome visual effects but doesn’t really develop into a gripping narrative. Recommended viewing if you love disaster films.

Fallen Leaves

Director: Aki Kaurismaki

Cast: Alma Poysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiainen

Running Time: 1 hour 21 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Language: Finnish with English subtitles

Festival: Durban International Film Festival

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki presents his deadpan humour cinematically in the wonderful wacky romantic comedy Fallen Leaves starring Alma Poysti as Ansa Gronholm, a shelf stocker at a local supermarket in Helsinki and welder and Jussi Vatanem as construction worker Holappa who has a periodic drinking problem.

Despite the dreary lives of the two main characters, their courtship and blighted romance takes on an absurdist tinge as Fallen Leaves resembles more a Pedro Almodovar film with its characters dressed in primary colours, its scenes of bizarre Finnish nightlife involving bad Karaoke, where the characters are told to listen and appreciate. It’s as if Almodovar made a film set in Helsinki and not Madrid.

Fallen Leaves is filled with some hilarious scenes especially when Ansa received her electricity bill and cannot afford to pay it as she has been retrenched so she unplugs all the appliances. Then there are the karaoke scenes in which Holappa flirts with Ansa only later to ask her on a date at a dodgy looking art cinema named the Ritz, which culminates in him losing her phone number.

Ansa decides that men are completely unreliable and after she finds another low level job as a construction worker, she adopts a dog to keep her company. Holappa on the other hand jumps from job to job as he frequently takes to vodka to drown his sorrows and his miserable life. His only companionship is his fast talking older friend Hannes Huotari played by Janne Hyytiainen, who hits on younger woman only to be told he is too old for them even though he hasn’t hit 50.

Fallen leaves is a delightful 81 minutes, a brief snapshot into life in contemporary Helsinki in which most of the sparse dialogue is interrupted by radio reports of the ongoing Russian invasion of the Ukraine, which director Aki Kaurismaki snuck in there to provide a subliminal political commentary.

Crisply acted by Alma Poysti and Jussi Vatanem, Fallen Leaves beautifully charts a young couples event ridden courtship to their final walk into the sunset, while subtly highlighting issues of social connection, isolation, worker exploitation and addiction.

Colourful and deadpan with a distinctly Scandinavian sense of humour Fallen Leaves gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is highly recommended as a quirky love story about fate, films and falling in love.

If viewers love an art house romance, then catch Fallen Leaves on a streaming site. This Finnish film was a beautiful way to end of the 45^th Durban International Film Festival.

Memory

Director: Michel Franco

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard, Merritt Weaver, Josh Charles, Jackson Dorfman, Jessica Harper, Brooke Timber

Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10 

Festival: Durban International Film Festival

Mexican director Michel Franco assembles an American cast in his latest film Memory starring Oscar winner Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Peter Sarsgaard (The Lost Daughter, Blue Jasmine). The two American stars play dysfunctional and broken characters in this contemporary New York drama.

Jessica Chastain plays Sylvia, a single mother and recovering alcoholic who is grappling with her traumatic past. Sylvia is very strict with her teenage daughter Anna played by Brooke Timber not allowing her to mix with boys or to go to teenage parties hoping to prevent a repetition of her own traumatic youth. Sylvia is supported emotionally by her stable and reliable younger sister Olivia wonderfully played Merritt Weaver (Marriage Story, Birdman and Michael Clayton) who is married with three children. Anna spends most of her time with her cousins while Sylvia is trying to cope with everyday life.

Anna’s life changes forever when a strange man Saul follows her home from a party then falls asleep on her doorstep outside her rundown apartment next to a tyre dealership in New York.

Peter Sarsgaard is brilliant as Saul Shapiro, the strange man who suffers from dementia and is looked after by his younger brother Isaac played by Josh Charles. Sarsgaard won the Best Actor prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival for playing Saul who is constantly confused yet knows that in Sylvia he finds the love of his life, a woman equally damaged as he is, but who is able to look after him and incorporate him into the family dynamic involving her and her daughter.

At a family gathering, all of Sylvia’s traumatic past gets laid bare in a crucial scene in which she brings Saul to meet her sister Olivia, while the sisters overbearing mother Samantha played by Jessica Harper confronts Sylvia about her life choices.

While the acting of the two main lead stars is impeccable, Memory as a film falters as the storyline lacks pace and at times feels like a tortured unglamorous saga in which New York as a city is not even featured except as a grimy backdrop for miserable characters.

Director Michel Franco aims for an art house film whose storyline doesn’t really go anywhere except to highlight themes like addiction, complex family relationships and mental health.

Memory is worth seeing for Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard’s performances but unfortunately the storyline fails the characters. Memory gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10. Catch Memory in cinemas or on an available streaming site.

The Showerhead

Director: Craig Tanner

Running time: 99 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Film Festival: Durban International Film Festival

Please note this film is a Documentary

Thank you to Videovision Entertainment for the invitation to the preview media screening held at their offices in Umhlanga on Wednesday 24^th July 2024.

The role of the court jester in any royal court is to make the king laugh by poking fun at the king and his antics.

In documentary filmmaker Craig Tanner’s film The Showerhead, Zapiro, that famous and incisive political cartoonist whose cartoons on many South African politicians have graced the pages of the Sunday Times, Mail and Guardian and more recently The Daily Maverick, is the court jester and he holds all the power.

The Showerhead is one of the best documentaries on the freedom of expression particularly pertinent to the South African political landscape which has now shifted from the disastrous Zuma years through state capture to Ramaphosa’s second term of office in which the President guides the beast that is the Government of National Unity following the ANC’s loss of their majority in the recent 2024 elections.

Viewing The Showerhead through an amused vantage point of 2024, where the political landscape has transformed considerably, this excellent documentary focuses on the life of Zapiro, known as Jonathan Shapiro whose extraordinary ability to capture in cartoons the South African political zeitgeist of the moment, focussing particularly of his numerous depictions of former President Jacob Zuma from his rise to power to his rape trial and then of course to his numerous corruption charges  which ultimately lead to his downfall.

In a recent online interview with director Craig Tanner and Zapiro, I asked them about their collaboration process, which they replied was intense but rewarding as Tanner expertly weaves the life of Jonathan Shapiro as he emerges as the leading controversial political cartoonist in South Africa as the politics of the country swept from President Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS denialism in the early 2000’s to the rise of President Zuma in 2009.

Zapiro expertly captured all of Zuma’s disgraceful antics from his rape trial to his shady association with the Gupta brothers at the height of State Capture which wrecked the South African economy, to President Zuma suing Zapiro for a particularly blistering cartoon of the rape of Lady Justice.

Ultimately, The Showerhead is about the right to freedom of expression and how powerful politicians should not interfere with that right. It must be expressed by talented cartoonists like Zapiro or brilliant contemporary artists like Brett Murray whose controversial painting of Jacob Zuma known as The Spear which appeared at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg caused a clash between the artists right to exhibit and the government’s power to censor.

The Showerhead is specifically South African, but it will find an audience internationally as freedom of expression is being undermined in many repressive countries globally.

Craig Tanner’s excellent and humorous document will not only take the viewers on a forgotten political journey of previous SA presidents but focuses on the talented Zapiro who captures every politician’s misstep with spot on humour and ingenuity.

The Showerhead closes the 45^th Durban International Film Festival tonight Saturday 27^th July 2024 and will sure have audiences talking beyond it’s premiere and into its commercial release which is being facilitated by Videovision Entertainment.

In the case between Zapiro and Zuma, the court jester has all the power as he successfully outwits a fallen king.

The Showerhead gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing as an extraordinary documentary and a brave account of significance of the freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the South African constitution. Catch The Showerhead on commercial cinema release later this year, its brilliant.