Britt Lower

Psycho Therapy

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Steve Buscemi as Kollmick

One of the great benefits of the whole 1990s revival thing has been a run of movies inspired by the early Coens. Psycho Therapy does a bit of a number on Barton Fink, not the Coens’ funniest or weirdest film, and is a re-assessment of their re-assessment of Hollywood output in its golden age. Screwball and crime, for the most part. It’s an “only in Hollywood” caper, about a stalled writer whose latest book set in Slovenia in the Neanderthal era is never going to be world shaking, if it ever gets finished at all. Keane’s friends laugh at him, wife Suzie pities him and his agent won’t answer his calls. Then one … Read more

Darkest Miriam

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Head shot of Britt Lower as Miriam

An enigmatic title for an enigmatic film, Darkest Miriam is a puzzling almost 1990s-style drama. It’s a showcase for Britt Lower, star of Severance on TV, who carries the entire movie with a cryptic and compelling performance. And it grew out of a short, Miriam’s World, conceived as an art installation, so there’s a touch of arthouse aridity. That said, director Naomi Jaye isn’t rolling around in it. There is the sense that she’s keeping the weird in check. Lower plays a competent but withdrawn librarian whose daily life of almost eccentric normality is disrupted when she spots a guy, who turns out to be a Slovenian called Janko (Tom Mercier), on a … Read more