Tag: Foreign Film Review
Angel (Un Ange) | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Wheels of Desire: Mortier Breaks Silence with Funereal Portrait of Dead Celebrity
It was a major punchline in Mike Nichols’ version of The Birdcage (1996)...
Where Hands Touch | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
I See a Dark Stranger: Asante Examines Obscured Holocaust Perspective in Anglo Period Piece
British director Amma Asante rounds out a thematic trilogy of sorts...
Angelo | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
The Moor the Merrier: Schleinzer Returns with Incendiary Portrait of Indentured Servitude
Austrian director Markus Schleinzer returns with his long-awaited sophomore film Angelo, a follow-up...
Sew the Winter to My Skin | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Or Else It Gets the Hose Again: Qubeka Recuperates a Rebel from Apartheid South Africa
South Africa’s film industry remains somewhat on the fringe of...
One Last Deal | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Art to Art: Haro Conjures Another Character Study in Crowd-pleasing Drama
Much like his contemporary Dome Karukoski, Finnish director Klaus Härö is one of his...
The Vice of Hope | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Hope to It: De Angelis Tackles Child Trafficking in Latest Neapolitan Drama
Life may be bleak, but it’s also textured with fascinating possibilities in the...
The River | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Bury the Sins & Wash Them Clean: Baigazin Presents the Dysfunction of Isolation in Simmering Drama
Over the last decade, several prominent voices out of...
Three Adventures of Brooke | 2018 Venice Film Festival Review
Of Time and the City: Yuan Qing Delights with Tender, Dainty Rohmerian Debut
An airy, relaxed tale of meandering bliss and the pursuit of meaning...
Let the Corpses Tan! | Review
All that Glitters: Cattet & Forzani Cut Stylish Swath Through Arid Neo-Western
For their third film, Let the Corpses Tan!, another heavily styled recalibration of...
Tumbbad | 2018 Venice Film Festival Review
Greedy Monster: Rahi Anil Barve’s Uneven Attempt at Horror-Fantasy Indian Epic
A debut feature for both Rahi Anil Barve and his co-director Adesh Prasad,...
A Prayer Before Dawn | Review
Break the Dawn: Sauvaire Browbeats with Violent, Grim Prison Drama
Although a simple plot synopsis tends to glorify the perilous pugilism which provides the bizarre...
Nico, 1988 | Review
What Costume Shall the Poor Girl Wear?: Nicchiarelli Knits Stellar Portrait of a Troubled Artist
“I’ve been at the bottom and I’ve been at the...
Baronesa | 2018 New Horizons Intl. Film Festival Review
A Song for Everyday Life: Antunes Looks at Womanhood in the Favelas
Set in the favela near Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this feature debut from Juliana...
Good Manners | Review
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf Mother?: Dutra & Rojas Spin Magical Spell with Subversive Class Commentary Horror
As its title would indicate, social etiquette and...
The Third Murder | Review
Murder Was the Case That They Gave Him: Kore-eda Mounts Philosophical Crime Thriller
Revered for his finely hewn dramas so often navigating the subtle isolation...
Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti | Review
Tahitian Treat: Cassel Casts a Gloom in Sanitized Biopic of a Starving Artist
He’s one of the more notable post-Impressionists and for the first time...
On Chesil Beach | Review
On the Waterfront: Cooke’s Tender Adaptation of Sexual Aversion in 1960s England
A couple of newly weds hit an irresolvable and unpleasant barrier during their...
The House That Jack Built | 2018 Cannes Film Festival Review
Lars and the Unreal Girls: The Danish Provocateur Pushes Buttons in Cruel, Grotesque Portrait of a Serial Killer
“O Muse, Recount to me the Causes”...
Leto | 2018 Cannes Film Festival Review
Goodbye Lenin: Serebrennikov’s Vibrant Time Capsule More than a Feeling
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s on-going house-arrest in Moscow lends his latest film, the period piece...
Revenge | Review
Follow The Blood Trails: Fargeat Impresses And Disappoints With Feature Debut
Coralie Fargeat’s feature debut makes a bold attempt at redirecting the well-worn rape and...
Zama | Review
Mortal Transfer: Martel Returns with Lush, Dark Comedy on Colonial Maneuvering
Unfairly disposed to doomed distribution prospects and perhaps unfortunate dismissal during its initial reception...
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc | Review
The Passion of the Joan: Dumont Approaches Ecclesiastical Fervor in Musical Comedy
If cinema could approach the same sacred realm as any pre-ordained religious doctrine,...
Marrowbone | Review
Love & Marrow: Sanchez Rattles Familiar Skeletons in Vintage Themed Debut
Spanish screenwriter Sergio F. Sanchez consults the bones for his directorial debut, Marrowbone, an...
Ismael’s Ghosts (Director’s Cut) | Review
Call Me, Ismael: Desplechin Presents Jumbled Portrait of the Artist as a Dulled Man
Perhaps not since the quill of Charles Dickens, wherein iconic Ebenezer...
The New Romantic | 2018 SXSW Film Festival Review
You've Got Male: Stone Adds to the Win Column with Delightful Debut
The New Romantic is a dramedy for the next generation that poses a...
The Breaker Upperers | 2018 SXSW Film Festival Review
Conscious Coupling: Modern Day "Womance" via Kiwi Duo
Yes, there is an extra syllable in the Breaker Upperers, a title imbued with the fumblings of...
Hannah | Review
No Whale Out: Pallaoro Strikes Somber Chords with Pitch Perfect Rampling
You’ll be hard pressed to find another melodrama as inconspicuously tightlipped as Andrea Pallaoro’s...
Foxtrot | Review
Dancing in Hollow: Maoz Moves Sharply between Shock, Grief & Absurdity
Israeli director Samuel Maoz was one of the most surprising Golden Lion winners in...
Mug (Twarz) | 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Eyes Without a Face: Szumowska Constructs a Christ Figure in Melancholic Farce
Love is a many splendored thing, albeit something often compromised or mutilated by...
Shock Waves: Diary of My Mind / First Name: Mathieu | 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review:
In the spirit of the 2011 German mini-series Dreileben (which included segments from Christian Petzold, Christoph Hochhausler, and Dominik Graf), in which a trio...
Eva | 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
All About Eva: Jacquot Remounts Losey with a Haughty Huppert
“Don’t get hooked,” she warns of her much younger lover. But by the time she...
Western | Review
German Cowboys Navigate Rocky Terrain in Brooding Drama
A film like Western simmers like a marshmallow on an open fire, never quite flaring up, but instead...
On the Milky Road | Review
Road to Nowhere: Kusturica Returns with Aimless War-Torn Fairy Tale
All’s certainly not fair in love nor war in Serbian director Emir Kusturica’s first film...
The Two of Us | Review
If We Try: Berri’s Exceptional Debut Granted Sterling Restoration
Arriving just in time to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, French auteur Claude Berri’s 1967 directorial...
Zoology | Blu-ray Review
Russian director Ivan I. Tverdovsky became an automatic name in the cult films register with his 2016 sophomore film Zoology, an allegory about a...
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle | Review
(Not So) Bright Future: Iwai’s Returns with Troubling Portrait of Modern Love
At the beginning of Japanese director Shunji Iwai’s latest film, A Bride for...
Aurora Borealis | 2017 Warsaw Film Festival Review
Daughters of the Dawn: Meszaros Examines Painful Period with Reconciliation Drama
Hungary’s cinematic canon can’t be discussed without a deliberation on the importance of Marta...
Journeyman | 2017 BFI London Film Festival Review
Fading Bull: Considine’s Heartfelt Drama of an Incapacitated Boxer
Following his final championship match, a boxer suffers a serious head injury that alters his personality...
Montparnasse Bienvenue (Jeune Femme) | 2017 BFI London Film Festival Review
Wander Woman: Serraille’s Tantalizing Tale of Wayward Independence
Upon breaking up with her former lover, a youthful woman roams the streets of Paris with a...
Kill Baby, Kill | Blu-ray Review
The influential reach of Italian giallo master Mario Bava is far and wide, and a retrospective earlier this year at The Quad helped re-introduce...
Luk’Luk’I | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Understanding the Ignored: Wapeemukwa Misfires But Manages to Deeply Move
The line between reality and fiction are difficult to separate in this Wayne Wapeemukwa’s feature...
The Motive | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Master of the Universe: Cuenca Returns with Predictable Exercise on the Writing Process
If you can’t find a muse, make one. Or so might be...
Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Tulip Fevered: Universality Found in Bulbs & Bicycle
In Dutch filmmaker Mike van Diem’s whimsical Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle, a young Canadian-Italian...
The Journey | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Salam Baghdad! Al-daradji Looks at Second Chances
A young woman walks into a crowded Baghdad train station, her finger poised on a detonator. Sara (played by newcomer...
Le Fidèle (Racer and the Jailbird) | Venice Film Festival Review
A Child’s Heart: Roskam Keeps Digging to Find What Lies Beneath Fast Cars & Bank Heists
From native Belgium to the States and back, Michaël...
Mademoiselle Paradis | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Paradis Regained: Albert Explores Thwarted Romantic Episode of Obscured Pianist
Austrian director Barbara Albert revisits 1770s high-society Vienna in her exploration of an attraction between...
Number One | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
One is the Loneliest Number: Marshall Explores White Collar Gender Politics
Gender disparity in the workplace is hardly unique to the American job market, as...
Beyond Words | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Stranger in a Strange Land: Antoniak Explores the Black and White of the Refugee Crisis
The ongoing refugee crisis provides the framework of Urszula Antoniak’s...
Disappearance | 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Review
Terms of Estrangement: Koole Poses Familial Woes in Chilly Scenes of Winter
“Family is just accident…,” remarks one of the tortured characters in Marsha Norman’s...
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno | 2017 Venice Film Festival Review
A Summer of Love, One Dance at a Time: Kechiche’s Sprawling, Circular Poem Follows in the Footsteps of Blue
It’s only the first part for now...
