Fiona Shaw

Echo Valley

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Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney

Constantly on the move, always trying new things, Sydney Sweeney’s advance on the Oscars probably won’t be helped by Echo Valley – she’s just not in it enough – but it won’t be hindered either. And she’s surrounded by the sort of actor the Academy loves. What is it though, this Echo Valley? Julianne Moore and Fiona Shaw are in it, so there’s an expectation of a certain sort of high-tone emotional drama, which is exactly what we get… at first. Moore plays the mother to an abjectly drug addicted daughter (Sweeney). Kate is at her wit’s end over Claire’s regular relapses and yet she continues to enable her daughter because she is a soft … Read more

Hot Milk

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Ingrid and Sofia on the beach with Ingrid's horse

In a hot European beach resort a woman in a wheelchair seeks a crank cure for her condition with her resentful daughter along in tow. Hot Milk is a hothouse drama, a sketch of a nasty little co-dependent relationship. Will the worm turn, and if so, when? Is mother really crippled, or is this part of her way of controlling her adult daughter? Does daughter realise her mother is possibly putting it all on? As mother Rose (Fiona Shaw), with sulking Sofia (Emma Mackey) perpetually on call, consults a dubious doctor on one of the Spanish Costas, something appears to be brewing but debut director Rebecca Lenkiewicz isn’t telling us what. “What do … Read more