Nicholas Bell

4618 POSTS
Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), FIPRESCI, the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2023: The Beast (Bonello) Poor Things (Lanthimos), Master Gardener (Schrader). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.

Exclusive articles:

Robot and Frank | Review

We all need a PAL.

Excision | Review

A darkly comic horror gem.

Review: The Pact

McCarthy’s debut is evidence that short films are indeed an art form and, if successful, do not necessitate a feature length running time. In fact, the tightest elements abound in the first third of the film, which shares the narrative of the short. McCarthy certainly nails a decent creepy atmosphere in his first few frames, but this convoluted turkey quickly kills any genre frills it tries to master.

The Pact | Review

One muddled alliance.

Review: Red Lights

"Recalling films like the 1935 Claude Rains’ starrer, The Clairvoyant or the underrated Séance On A Wet Afternoon, (and, strangely, maybe even a bit of De Palma’s The Fury, if only a Bernard Herrmann score could have accompanied the film), Cortes gives us an excessive amount of window dressing in its first half, only to pull the rug on us with one indefatigably head scratching conclusion. And this is what will either determine your reading of the film as convoluted or harebrained brilliant."

Breaking

La petite dernière (The Little Sister) | Review

The Lost Daughter: Herzi Passes Up Potency in Standard...

Interview: Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud – Persepolis

The thrill of meeting Marjane Satrapi reminded me of being 6 years old at Disney Land when I met the living, breathing Cinderella. Except Cinderella was an actress with a blond wig and Marjane is the real woman behind her autobiographical graphic novel, turned movie, “Persepolis”. The distinctive mole on her nose and her dark sultry eyes rose off the page and appeared in front of me, smoking and speaking with a French accent.
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