Tag: Foreign Film Review
Sputnik | Review
This Time It’s Cold War: Abramenko Revamps a Xenomorph with Effective Potboiler
Just when you think a familiar formula might have run all its potential...
The Bay of Silence | Review
The Hand That Mocks the Cradle: van der Oest Overwhelms in Overstuffed Trauma Drama
Some inherent problems with adapting complex or labyrinthine novels into film...
The Secret Garden | Review
Garden of Earthly Dismay: Munden Makes Burnett Mundane in Lifeless Remake
There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away, and certainly...
Host | Review
Ghost in the Machine: Savage Speaks to the Moment with Creative Horror
In what plays like a logical extension of the found footage subgenre, UK...
The Burnt Orange Heresy | Review
Pleasure to Burn: Capotondi Returns with Entertaining Neo-Noir
Murder really can be turned into art, it seems, in Giuseppe Capotondi’s return to narrative filmmaking with...
Waiting for the Barbarians | Review
Enemy at the Gate: Guerra Heads to the International Frontier with Flat Coetzee Adaptation
The richness and heft of Ciro Guerra’s cinema gets lost somehow...
The Shadow of Violence | Review
Goodbye Horses: Rowland Riles Allegiances in Familiar Crime Thriller
It’s a tale as old as crime itself, the toppling of empires thanks to the shifting...
Skin Walker | Review
The Skin I Don’t Live In: Neuman Prepares a Fractured Affair in Disjointed Debut
All the technical elements of a creepy genre film are evident...
A Girl Missing | Review
Guilt by Dissociation: Fukada Explores the Burden of Others in Exemplary Melodrama
Director Kôji Fukada presents a melodrama hung on absurdity for his fourth feature,...
Summerland | Review
Castles in the Sky: Swale Finds Love During Wartime in Likeable Debut
Although it’s a somewhat simple and ultimately schmaltzy dose of narrative convenience, Jessica...
Radioactive | Review
Particle Decay: Satrapi Explores Curie in Elliptical, Stunted Biopic
The persona of Marie Curie is a no-brainer as far as cinematic importance and appeal goes,...
Lake of Death | Review
Dead Again: Robsahm Remake of Norwegian Classic is DOA
The inherent value of any remake, sequel or reboot is always the attention it funnels back...
Most Wanted | Review
Canada Dry: Roby Runs Circles in Derivative Poliziotteschi
Most Wanted (or as it was released in Canada, Target Number One), the fifth feature from French...
Impetigore | Review
Grim Fairy Tale: Anwar Gets Garish in Excessive, Entertaining Horror Film
While Indonesian cinema has become more prominent on the festival circuit over the past...
Amulet | Review
The Lying Nun: Garai Sways Scary with Stimulating Debut
Indeed, the female of the species is more deadly than the male even in the realm...
The Sunlit Night | Review
Norway Out: Wnendt Paints a Blank Slate in Slight Romantic Drama
Expectations seemed reasonably high for The Sunlit Night, the English language debut from provocative...
Relic | Review
Dementia Seed: James Concocts Brooding Debut of Intergenerational Horror
A growing influx of low-fi genre films, many directed by women, have steadily redefined broad categorizations...
We Are Little Zombies | Review
13 Stages of Grief: Nagahisa’s Game-Changing Debut
Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is a pure and delightful work of art. Crafted with love and...
The Truth | Review
I Remember Mama: Kore-eda Anoints Deneuve as a Diva in Pleasurable Drama
A subtle exercise in the limited reality of both perspective and memory, auteur...
Beats | Review
Gravitational Arch of Men: Teenage Friendship’s Last Hurrah Found in Walsh’s Scottish Techno Crowd-pleaser
Simultaneously a nostalgic throwback and a vibrant, youthful anthem of rebelliousness, Beats...
The Audition | Review
A History of Violins: Hoss at a Loss in Weisse’s Careful Character Study
Actor Ina Weisse returns to the director’s chair for the first time...
The Last Tree | Review
A Tree Grows in London: Amoo Charts Familiar Coming of Age Drama Through Urban Pitfalls
Cycles of violence and heartache in disenfranchised urban communities are...
7500 | Review
Code Known: Gordon-Levitt Shines in Intense Procedural Thriller from Vollrath
We’ve seen plenty of big budget Hollywood films dealing with airplane hijackings, to which sensitivity...
Babyteeth | Review
Death Comes for the Ozzie Frippet: Murphy Looks to Love Amidst Dysfunction in Cancer Melodrama
Precocious teens represent a burgeoning film subgenre all to themselves---and...
Papicha | Review
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?: Meddour Goes Back to Black Decade with Debut
Fashion is certainly far from one’s mind when dealing with...
Bird Talk (2019) | Review
Goodbye to Language: The Final Gasp of Zulawski Presents a Fractured Portrait of Contemporary Poland
Language and culture are prominent motifs in the filmography of...
The Trip to Greece | Review
The Greece-y Strangler: Winterbottom Lays His Culinary Comedy Series to Rest
Michael Winterbottom aims to kill his darlings with the fourth and final segment of...
Military Wives | Review
They Could Go on Singing: Cattaneo Conducts Choir in Formulaic Melodrama
Director Peter Cattaneo resurfaces for his first narrative feature in over a decade...
Mysteries of Lisbon | Review
Raul Ruiz’s Epic Literary Adaptation is a 5-hour Academic Exercise
Castle in the Ground | Review
Opiate of the Masses: Klein Mines Comfort in Crises with Somber Addiction Odyssey
The trauma of substance abuse and addiction has carved out a...
Blue Story | Review
Enemies, a Love Story: Rapman Rides the Waves of a Street War in Familiar Fashion
Although it’s not quite West Side Story (1961), either in...
On a Magical Night | Review
A Room with a Screw: Honoré Waxes Playful on Marital Discord
The flexibility (or lack thereof) of fidelity in heteronormative relationships is at the center...
Deerskin | Review
Full Leather Jacket: Dupieux’s Cinema Bizarre Continues with Killer Style
Quentin Dupieux, France’s purveyor or loopy absurdism, returns with Deerskin, headlined by high-profilers Jean...
Tammy’s Always Dying | Movie Review
Tammy and the Television: Johnson Jam Packs Eccentric Indie Drama
Death becomes Felicity Huffman in the sophomore feature Tammy’s Always Dying from actress-turned director Amy...
Kokoloko | 2020 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Love is Bolder Than Death: Naranjo Returns to his Roots with Lo-Fi Melodrama
All’s fair in guerilla love and warfare, at least from the male’s...
True History of the Kelly Gang | Review
The Ned Don’t Die: Kurzel Returns to Form with Exploration of Infamous Outlaw
It’s been nearly 140 years since the execution of Ned Kelly, Australia’s...
A White, White Day | Review
Indiscretion of an Icelandic Wife: Palmason Primes a Crime of Passion in Simmering Drama
Nothing is initially what it seems in Icelandic director Hlynur...
Sea Fever | Review
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Hardiman Finds Humanity in the Horror
We’ve seen countless films about bands of isolated humans in...
Why Don’t You Just Die! | Review
The Kalashnikov Sonata: Sokolov Serves Pulp in Enjoyably Nasty Debut
Hell hath no fury like a struggling actress, at least as it’s played in the...
The Other Lamb | Review
Lamb Tied to (Mis)Take: Szumowska Gets Culty with English Language Debut
Cults seem to be making something of a comeback in popular film culture, which...
Resistance | Review
The Wages of Ham: Jakubowicz Mimes Melodrama in Offkey Resistance
For his third film, Venezuelan born Jonathan Jakubowicz falls headlong into an acceptable faux pas...
Vivarium | Review
Life as a House: Beware the Burbs in Finnegan’s Metaphorical Sophomore Feature
The novelty of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone,” or any of its various...
Caught in a Bad Romance: Clouzot’s Dire Love Story Resurrected “Manon” | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Academy resurrects an early notable work from the filmography of Henri-Georges Clouzot with his 1949 Manon, which won the Golden Lion at the...
Heist Season: Losey Gets Hard Boiled in Somber Neo Noir “The Criminal” | Blu-ray Review
Sporting one of cinema’s most varied filmographies, American born Joseph Losey is one of the few blacklisted success stories of McCarthy’s witch hunt in...
The Roads Not Taken | Review
Roadside Assistance: Potter Putters in Nonsensical Melodrama
Who is the nearly catatonic man being dragged through New York by his overly sincere daughter? His name...
Hope Gap | Review
Mind the Gap: Nicholson’s Intimate Divorce Story Drama
The emotional devastation of a divorce girds the intimate dramatic underpinnings of Hope Gap, a quiet and...
Bacurau | Review
It Takes a Village: Filho & Dornelles Smash Art-House into Grindhouse
A heady melding of local cultural motifs, morbid politically-minded histories and exploitation slasher vibes,...
Balloon | Review
An Air Affair: Herbig Revisits GDR Getaway in Strait-laced Thriller
German director Michael Herbig, best known for his comedic films in his native country, makes...
The Whistlers | Review
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle: Porumboiu Goes Mainstream with Neo-noir
Romanian New Wave alum Corneliu Porumboiu makes a marked departure with his latest...
DAU. Natasha | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Russia House: Khrzhanovskiy & Oertel Arrive from Russia with Love
As far as the cinematic form has been concerned, there’s been nothing which courts...
