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Shield of Straw | Cannes Review
Burnt Offerings: Miike’s Latest Can’t Quite Reach Satisfying Blaze That audacious auteur of excess, Takashi Miike, unveils his latest offering, Shield of Straw to be a surprisingly straight laced police narrative that’s notably unfettered
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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Kuma | Review
Two’s Company: Dag’s Extraordinary Debut Perversely Compelling Like Feo Aladag’s 2010 harrowing debut, When We Leave, Austrian-Kurdish director Umat Dag’s first film, Kuma, examines the strict traditions and cultural values of a Turkish immigrant
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Feed Me With Your Words | Review
Holy Strokes!: Turk’s Debut Loses Its Appetite Born out of a collaboration with the Torino Film Lab comes Martin Turk’s feature directorial debut, Feed Me With Your Words, a three tiered narrative structure told
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Mushrooming | Review
Scandal Sheet: An Odd, Disjointed Look at Estonia’s Political Climate Estonian director Toomas Hussar makes his screen debut with Mushrooming, a sort of political satire, sort of comedy, sort of faux thriller that may
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It Happened in Saint Tropez | COLCOA Review
Those Who Love Me Can Catch the Train Wreck: Thompson’s Latest Flat, Overstuffed Familial relationships and transportation, two favorite themes of writer/director Daniele Thompson, figure heavily in her latest feature, It Happened in Saint
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The Almost Man | Review
Growing Pains: Lund’s Debut a Gem of Behavioral Regression The long hard road to growing up and accepting responsibility takes the center stage in Martin Lund’s simply and astutely observed tale about one thirty
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Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal | Review
Lars and the Killer Dude: Rodriguez Explores Art and Inspiration While sporting a title that would seem to indicate a comedic mash up of bizarro horror tropes and cheeky zingers, Boris Rodriguez’ enjoyable debut,
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Lotus Eaters | Review
Let What is Broken So Remain: McGuiness’ Debut Familiar, Mesmerizing “Ah, why should life all labor be?” asks Lord Alfred Tennyson in a line from his poem, The Lotus-Eaters, with which Alexandra McGuiness’ film
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Trance | Review
Goya’s Ghosts: Boyle’s Twisty Tale Fails to Hypnotize Danny Boyle re-teams with scribe John Hodge (co-writing with Joe Ahearne) for Trance, their first collaboration since 2000’s The Beach. A pulpy return in novelistic filmmaking
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Welcome to the Punch | Review
Knockout Loss: Creevy’s Sophomore Effort Easy and Breezy After crafting his 2008 Riz Ahmed starring debut Shifty from personal experiences, director Eran Creevy turns to the heist genre for his sophomore effort, Welcome to
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Renoir | Review
The Talent Family: Bourdos Abandons Genre for Elegant Biographical Period Piece A summer signifying the encroaching end of one artist and the birth of another within one of France’s most famous families is the
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Mental | Review
Mixed Nuts: Hogan’s Latest a Welcome Return to Roots After almost two decades knocking around the studio system after the success of his 1994 hit Muriel’s Wedding landed him in Hollywood, Australian director P.J.
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New World | Review
Operation Rehash: Hoon-jung’s Sophomore Film Glossy Entertainment Director Park Hoon-jung, perhaps best known for his screenplays for a pair of 2010 titles like The Unjust, and particularly, I Saw the Devil, attempts to tackle
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My Brother the Devil | Review
Better the Devil You Know: Hosaini’s Debut a Vibrant Urban Street Drama Sally El Hosaini’s directorial debut, My Brother the Devil, takes the overly familiar gangland drama genre and manages to make an engaging
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Hunky Dory | Review
Satisfactory Endeavor: Evans’ Latest Enjoyable Fluff Welsh director Marc Evans explores 1970’s rural Wales with his latest film, Hunky Dory, following his 2010 film Patagonia. While Evans is somewhat of a genre jumper, oscillating
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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."
