Why you can trust 12DOVE
Directed by the late American film-maker John Berry, who died during post-production, Boesman And Lena is the second big-screen version of Athol Fugard's play (itself heavily indebted to Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot in its vision of drifting humanity).
Danny Glover and Angela Bassett play the down-and-out South Africans of the title. Their's is a love-hate relationship, in which insults and accusations fly back and forth, although fleeting flashbacks reveal the couple's intimacy and shared loss. But when an aged Kaffir (Willie Jonah) stumbles onto their makeshift home, Lena treats him with warm compassion, arousing Boesman's ire...
The lengthy theatrical monologues, abstract setting and reliance on props make for unsatisfactory cinema. Bassett and Glover deliver intense, physical performances, yet this style of acting and direction is, unsurprisingly, far better suited to the stage than the screen.
The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.
"Souls-like meets Fable" is all this indie RPG needed to say to meet its Kickstarter goal, but it added in a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood nod just for good measure
Gorgeous JRPG homage Clair Obscur sells out its collector's edition months before launch, dev says it didn't think "the demand for our physical editions would be so high"
Turn-based RPG Clair Obscur dev says all-star voice actor lineup includes people like Andy Serkis and Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni by accident: "He was like, 'Isn't that Clive from Final Fantasy?'"