Reviews »
Like Father, Like Son | Review
Blood Ties: An Elegant, Yet Familiar New Film from Koreeda Children switched at birth and discovered years after the error is the well-worn melodramatic scenario that master filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda manages to make potentially
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The Past | Cannes Review
Heavy, Heavy Hangs: Farhadi’s Latest a (mostly) Worthwhile Endeavor For his first film made outside his native country, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi unveils his latest exercise in domestic unrest with the French language The
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Jeune et Jolie | Cannes Review
Airy & banal, Ozon’s Latest is as Indistinct as its Title Moving right along the trajectory we’re all well familiar with by now, François Ozon makes yet another sexed-up François Ozon film with this
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The Fruit Hunters | Review
Finding The Forbidden: Chang Indulges In Produce It seems that for some, the appetite for rare and exotic fruits extends far beyond mere curious fascination and well on into the realm of impassioned obsession.
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Augustine | Review
A Scandalous Method: Winocour’s Debut a Rich Case Study Celebrated filmmaker Alice Winocour, renowned for several of her short films, makes a compelling debut with Augustine, based on the real life case study of
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Expedition to the End of the World | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Dencik Sails For Science and Existentialism At first glance, Danish director Daniel Dencik’s Expedition to the End of the World seems a blatant ripoff of Werner Herzog’s graceful examination of modern Antarctica in Encounters
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Aftershock | Review
After shock, after shock: Lopez Directs Roth in Another Tourist Nightmare Recalling the glut of disaster movies that invaded the multiplexes in the 60s and 70s, everything from The Poseidon Adventure and, of course,
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Blood Brother | Hot Docs 2013 Review
India, AIDS & Amity: Hoover Follows Friend’s Heart It’s really no wonder that often when westerners find themselves drifting, looking for more from life, they drop everything and journey off into the unknown, and
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Errors of the Human Body | Review
Body Talk: Sheean’s Debut Forgoes Thrills for Moody Drama Eron Sheean, best known for writing the 2011 Xavier Gens film, The Divide, arrives with his curiously titled Errors of the Human Body, a sort
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Erased | Review
Untaken Legacy: Stolzl’s English Debut a Clunky, Derivate Actioneer Originally titled The Expatriate, German director Philip Stolzl’s English language debut gets the dumbed down title of Erased, which unfortunately only makes it an easy
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Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s | Review
Glossy Emptiness; Fashion’s Greatest Church The measure of success used in the fashion industry is unlike any used in other commercial art. Rather than massive popularity and accessibility, exclusivity is the name of the
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Mobius | Review
False Positive: Rochant’s Latest a Trashy, Muddled Mess French director Eric Rochant, no stranger to espionage themed genre exercises upon a quick glance at his filmography (Les Patriotes), delivers a surprisingly inept turkey with
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Elena | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Float On: Costa Laments Sister In Intimate Portrait Petra Costa has been trying to process the suicide of her older sister for over two decades now. The young docu director’s first feature, Elena, is
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Kiss of the Damned | Review
Nothing Human Loves Forever: Cassavetes’ Feature Debut Gloriously Vintage Xan Cassavetes joins the family directorial legacy with her feature debut, Kiss of the Damned, a deliciously vintage throwback to the erotic horror output of
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Love is All You Need | Review
Before the Wedding: Bier’s Latest a Vibrant Vehicle for Dyrholm Susanne Bier returns with an uncharacteristically light film, Love Is All You Need, after her 2011 Best Foreign Language Film win for In a
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Bending Steel | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Carroll’s Debut A Wonder-ful Metamorphosis It turns out that being an old time strongman has less to do with bulging muscles, leopard skin leotards and handle bar mustaches than it does with carrying on
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12 O’Clock Boys | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Battles In Baltimore: Nathan Rides With The Boys First time director Lotfy Nathan has spent the last few years documenting war in the streets of Baltimore, though not against drugs or the classic gang-bangers
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Fuck For Forest | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Exploits For Earth: Marczak Gazes Into The Gutter After the breakout success of his docu debut At the Edge of Russia, Polish director Michal Marczak found himself following the sexual and political exploits of
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15 Reasons To Live | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Zweig Somberly Celebrates Human Resilience Occasionally, moments of epiphany can boil down the colossal essence of mortality into simple, elegant terms. For Alan Zweig, director of the LP obsessed docu Vinyl, one of those
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Tai Chi Hero | Review
Fallen Hero; Fung Spawns Unnecessary Sequel Bringing back the tonally strange style that makes these films so hard to classify, Stephen Fung’s follow-up to last year’s Tai Chi Zero displays little in terms of
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Alias | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Latimer Drops Beat On Toronto’s Rap Scene Taking it’s name from one of the four Toronto street rappers it peeks into the lives of, Michelle Latimer’s Alias examines the cyclic struggles of urban hip-hoppers
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Midnight’s Children | Review
Changeling Game: Mehta’s Latest a Stodgy, Swollen Adaptation A fictional narrative that attempts to recuperate an impressive fifty year historical timeline concerning relations between India and Pakistan, Deepa Mehta’s latest film, Midnight’s Children, is
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The Manor | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Polemic Crisis: Cohen Turns Camera On His Fam Having flown the coop over a decade ago to work in the film industry as a digital effects artist, first time feature director Shawney Cohen decided
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Arthur Newman | Review
Hello, Newman: Ariola’s Meditation on Getting a Life Fails to Have One For a film whose tagline aggressively demands, “If you don’t have a life, get someone else’s,” Dante Ariola’s directorial debut, Arthur Newman,
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The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Review
Turn and Face the Strain: Nair’s Latest Adaptation a Return to Form Citing the project as nearly five years in the making, Mira Nair’s adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows on
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"Ron and I wanted to make a film that looked at what it means to be an outsider and we wanted to explore what it takes to reach out to someone whose life is very removed from your own."
