Film

Praise

Name: Praise
Genre: Drama
Released: 1999
Cast: Peter Fenton, Sacha Horler, Joel Edgerton, Marta Dusseldorp, Yvette Duncan

Social drama

A Brisbane bottle-shop worker and a woman with eczema find brief solace in each other—and in drink, drugs, and Scrabble—in a run-down hotel. Deliberately unglamorous, shot like overheard conversation, *Praise* refuses sentiment. It's for people who want their cinema to feel like real life, even when real life is lonely and a bit grim.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow, scruffy character studies where small talk, bad habits and awkward tenderness carry more weight than plot, and you don't mind sitting with people who make poor choices.

Skip it if you need momentum or a clear hook, since long stretches drift around a dingy hotel with little happening, and its bleak mood may feel like a chore.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a lean runtime of under two hours, with unhurried scenes, long silences and a mood that stays low-key and melancholy rather than building to set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Lantana2001

A suburban ensemble that braids together infidelity, grief, and moral uncertainty with the same unflinching eye. Like *Praise*, it finds the complex truth beneath surface respectability.

But Slower than you'd expect, with no easy answers. The narrative structure jumps, which some find clever and others find frustrating.

Look Both Ways2005

A widower and a woman with agoraphobia meet after a train disaster. Tender without being sentimental, it finds the quiet grace in ordinary, struggling people.

But The romance feels slow and uncertain. Some viewers want more narrative propulsion than it provides.

Kisses2008

Two Dublin runaways navigate the city with affection and improvisation. Captures that specific tenderness between people with nowhere else to go.

But Shot handheld and sometimes deliberately shapeless. The style can feel self-conscious rather than naturalistic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Praise

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Love Exposure2008

Both films trust their damaged characters without flinching away from damage; both find odd, tender logic in how lonely people reach for each other.

A four-hour Japanese epic about a boy who learns to photograph women without consent as a spiritual practice, and the troubled girl he loves. Sounds wrong; it's genuinely moving. Like *Praise*, it finds the strange logic of how broken people connect.

But Four hours long, tonally erratic, and structurally ambitious in ways that can feel self-indulgent. You need patience and faith.

After the Wedding2006

A Danish film about the collision between idealism and complicity, where good people make complicated choices. Morally intricate in the way *Praise* is.

But The twist, when it arrives, divides viewers. Some find it manipulative; others find it earned.

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson in Glasgow asking strangers for directions, really asking them. A film about connection and disconnection that feels stranger and sadder than most.

But Long passages of minimal dialogue and oblique plotting. Many viewers find it deliberately difficult and cold.

A Prophet2009

A young man survives prison by adapting, compromising, surviving. Brilliant and exhausting about how people change under pressure.

But Violent and brutal. Not for catharsis; for unflinching realism about what violence does.

Fish Tank2009

A London girl dreams of becoming a hip-hop dancer while her life narrows. Beautifully shot, full of frustrated energy.

But Ends poorly for everyone. If you need hope or earned redemption, you'll find this punishing.

The Idiot1951

Both are about goodness and longing in unglamorous places; both suggest that the most moving thing is simply how we treat each other.

Akira Kurosawa's film of Dostoevsky, transported to post-war Japan. A guileless, traumatised man moves among people who want to use him, and everyone becomes more human for it.

But Made in 1951 and it shows. The pace is glacial; the emotional register can feel antique.

Climax2018

Both films capture the texture of bodies in crisis—whether through substance or simply through living. Both refuse to look away or make it prettier than it is.

Dancers at a rehearsal discover their sangria has been spiked with LSD. What follows is gorgeously, horribly choreographed chaos. A sensory experience, nothing like *Praise* formally, but equally committed to showing how quickly people unravel.

But Visually extreme and genuinely disturbing. Not a film to relax into; it's meant to destabilise you.