Tag: Foreign Film Review
Eternal Beauty | Review
Unhappy-Go-Lucky: Hawkes Shines in Roberts’ Mental Illness Drama
The depiction of mental illness, particularly something like schizophrenia, a real condition often posed as a catch-all...
Possessor Uncut | Review
The Mind Benders: Cronenberg Returns with Eerie Exercise of Mind/Body Horror
Eight years after his 2012 debut Antiviral, Brandon Cronenberg returns with Possessor Uncut, an...
Misbehavior | Review
Through Beauty, Equality: Lowthorpe Examines Intersections Through Provocative Period Nexus
Sporting material speckled with enough players and perspectives to justify a much longer format, Philippa...
The Nest | Review
Bonfire of the Wannabes: Durkin Returns with Scenes from a Consumerist Marriage
Sean Durkin, at last, returns with sophomore feature The Nest nine years after...
Sibyl | Review
Doctor Strange: Triet Gets Tricky with Autofiction Affair
Reuniting with Virginie Efira, the lead from her 2016 sophomore breakout Victoria (aka In Bed with Victoria),...
In Between Dying | 2020 Venice Film Festival Review
In the Mood for Love: Baydarov Searches for a Real Love in Enigmatic Road Trip
All you need is love, if you can find it,...
The Best Is Yet to Come | 2020 Venice Film Festival Review
Disease Beat: Jing Revisits the Turn of the Century with Saccharine Debut
Whenever the protégé of a major contemporary auteur branches out into their own...
Cuties | Review
L’amener Sur: Doucouré’s Debut a Winning, Familiar Bildungsroman
French writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré strikes a mostly affable balance between familiar coming-of-age tropes and culturally specific intersections...
The Furnace | 2020 Venice Film Festival Review
Easier for a Camel: MacKay Unearths Troubling History in Revisionist Western Debut
Like Jennifer Kent before him with 2018’s The Nightingale, director Roderick MacKay mines...
Apples | 2020 Venice Film Festival Review
Blight of My Life: Nikou Finds Meaning Through Its Absence in Exceptional Debut
Somewhere along the way, the Greek Weird Wave has seemingly evolved from...
The Personal History of David Copperfield | Review
I am (re) Born: Iannucci Condenses a Dickens Masterpiece with Contemporary Aims
“It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon...
Matthias and Maxime | Review
Peas & Carrots: Dolan Gets Caught in a Bad Romance
Xavier Dolan devotees will be happy to note his latest feature, the treacly melodrama Matthias...
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula
Zombie Nation: Sang-ho Widens the Net, Lessens the Scope in Sprawling Sequel
There is no room in the conceit ‘less is more,’ it seems, in...
Stage Mother | Review
Once Upon a Time, There Was Light in My Life: Fitzgerald Soars with Bittersweet Melodrama
A testament for the continual importance of narratives which explore...
The Bare Necessity | Review
I Think I Love You: Le Duc Looks for Love in Absurdist Comedy
“Is the life you’re living truly yours?” asks a whispery Fanny Ardant...
Random Acts of Violence | Review
The Violent Bear It Away: Baruchel Turns Murder into Art with Fragmented Debut
An exercise which navigates the oft-blurred lines between art and exploitation, actor...
The Silencing | Review
The Quiet Canadian: Pront Returns to the Woods with Canadian Thriller
Belgian director Robin Pront reveals his fixation with rural neo-noir in sophomore film and...
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...
