Tag: Foreign Film Review
Young and Beautiful | Review
Airy & banal, Ozon's Latest is as Indistinct as its Title
Moving right along the trajectory we’re all well familiar with by now, François Ozon...
Criterion Collection: Master of the House | Blu-ray Review
While he’ll always be best known for his 1928 silent masterpiece, The Passion of Joan Arc (or for his atmospheric 1932 horror film, Vampyr),...
The German Doctor | Review
A Nazi At My Table: Puenzo’s Latest an Eerie Reimagining
Argentinian director Lucia Puenzo once again adapts one of her own novels for her latest...
Tasting Menu | Review
Finger Food: Gaul’s Latest Effort Staunchly Unappetizing
Spanish filmmaker Roger Gaul (known for his 2002 debut, the co-directed Smoking Room) returns with this Irish co-produced...
Perfect Sisters | Review
Sister, My Sister: Brooks’ Uneven Debut Fumbles
Producer Stanley M. Brooks makes his directorial debut with Perfect Sisters, one of those tawdry sounding stories about...
Cuban Fury | Review
1, 2 Step: Griffiths’ Debut Features Solo Frost in Winning Performance
Though it may not command a notable shelf life in your memory, and even...
Ilo Ilo | Review
Singapore Slump: Economics Brushed Aside in Chen's Gem Debut
In his autobiographical debut Ilo Ilo, young Singaporean helmer Anthony Chen delivers a beautifully simple story...
Under the Skin | Review
Female Perversion: Glazer’s Latest a Strange, Hypnotic Exploration of the Body Feminine
It’s been over a decade now since Jonathan Glazer’s exciting and strange sophomore...
Nymphomaniac: Volume II | Review
Get Into the Gloom: Von Trier Evades Easy Answers in Darker Second Chapter of Sexual Odyssey
You can forget about love as well as any...
The Raid 2 | Review
Badass Berendal: Gareth Evans Delivers a Bloody Good Time
Bigger is palpably better. In Gareth Evans' eagerly anticipated and ambitious sequel to his 2011 cult...
Alan Partridge | Review
Alpha Comedian: a Partridge in a Fair Tree
Steve Coogan is known to North American audiences as the successful writer and lead actor of Philomena,...
Nymphomaniac: Volume I | Review
The Girl Can’t Help It: Von Trier’s Indelible First Chapter a Sobering, Ruminative Examination of the Last Cinematic Frontier
In today’s modern world, where cinematic...
Just a Sigh | Review
Brief Encounter: Bonnell’s Latest a Breezy, Gallic Affair
With his fifth feature, Just a Sigh, (a butchered translation from what really should be The Time...
Blood Ties | Review
Blood Simple: Canet’s English Language Debut an Enjoyably Prostrate Epic
For his English language debut, actor/director Guillaume Canet arrives with Blood Ties, a remake of...
Himizu | Review
Suffer the Children: Sono’s Social Dystopia a Melancholy Landscape
It appears that 2014 will be a year that sees a flood of Sion Sono’s back...
Ernest & Celestine | Review
Cute in Court: Bears and Mice Controversially Live In Harmony
We are not for lack of anthropomorphized mice nor bears, from all the way back...
Le Week-End | Review
Meant to Be Spent Alone: Michell’s Latest a Welcome Return to Quality Filmmaking
After a pair of mainstream US misfires, South African born director Roger...
Enemy | Review
Identical/Identity: Villeneuve's Doppelganger Thriller a Kafkaesque Dead Ringer
You can forget the pulpy throes of the dark hearted Prisoners, the recently released collaboration of Jake...
The Art of the Steal | Review
Art Bitch: Sobol Turns to the Dependable Heist Drama with Mixed Results
Flying in on the feathery laurels of Kurt Russell (once again donning a...
Grand Piano | Review
Player Piano: Interesting Ideas Churn Into Nonsensical Slog in Mira’s Third Outing
Back with his first film since the 2010 potboiler, Agnosia, Spanish director Eugenio...
Journey to the West: Conquering Demons | Review
A Demon in My View: Chow Returns with Rousing, Comedic Action
Director Stephen Chow returns with Journey to the West: Conquering Demons, his first film...
Honey | Review
Helps the Medicine Go Down: Golino’s Winning, Striking Debut
Actress Valeria Golino hinges an intriguing character study around the thorny topic of euthanasia, with her...
Stalingrad | Review
Back in the U.S.S.R.: Bondarchuk’s Latest a Visual Feast and Narrative Folly
Arriving with a small coterie of distinctive firsts, actor/director Fedor Bondarchuk’s latest directorial...
The Wind Rises | Review
Miyazaki’s Swan Song A Somber Flight Of Fancy
Earlier this month, legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, writer and director of such masterpieces as Spirited Away, Castle...
Black Out | Review
Black and Mild: Toonen’s High Octane Adaptation a Bit Derivative
If you could imagine The Hangover remade as a drug fueled action thriller with stylizations...
Easy Money: Hard to Kill | Review
Man of Straw: Kinnaman Beginagain in Energetic Yet Paltry Sequel
While Swedish director Daniel Espinosa’s 2010 film Easy Money kicked off his lucrative international status,...
Love is in the Air | Review
Pressurized: Sagnier and Co. in a Charming Rom-Com Straitjacket
For his first solo film as director, Alexandre Castagnetti nabbed the talented Ludivine Sagnier to headline...
Stranger By the Lake | Review
Wet Hot French Summer: Guiraudie’s Bold, Scintillating New Film
Idiosyncratic filmmaker Alain Guiraudie is set to take the art house by storm with his bold,...
Summer in February | Review
Summer Bummer: Menaul’s Love Triangle Inspires Opposite Emotions
Not every “based on a true story” is actually fit for a feature length film. In fact,...
In Bloom | Review
An Early Frost: Ekvtimishvili & Grob’s Debut a Memoir in Neorealism
The Georgian entry for 2014’s Best Foreign Language Film, In Bloom is the directorial...
Pauline Detective | Review
Pauline at the Beach: Fitoussi’s Breezy Caper Good for a Laugh
Director Marc Fitoussi seems inclined toward breezy-haired, bauble headed gamines that get jostled around...
The Rocket | Review
Silver Linings: Morduant’s Debut a Breezy, Formulaic Crowd Pleaser
After winning awards and audience accolades at nearly every film festival it’s screened at (including Berlin,...
The Invisible Woman | Review
In Plain Sight: Great Expectations for Fiennes' Sophomore Effort
After his brash, testosterone-fueled directorial debut Coriolanus, Ralph Fiennes fares far better with the quieter, chest-heaving illicit...
Paradise: Hope | Review
Grand Finale: Seidl’s Final Chapter Strikes Surprisingly Tender Notes
With Paradise: Hope, the crowning chapter of Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Trilogy, the provocateur surprises...
What’s In a Name? | Review
By Any Other Name: Patellerie & Delaporte’s Debut a Comfortably Forced Farce
Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliere’s co-directorial debut, What’s in a...
Night Train to Lisbon | Review
Ride on Time: August and Another Puerile Adaptation
It’s evident that Danish director Bille August favors helming adaptations of challenging novels, though the end result...
Here Comes the Devil | Review
Lock Your Souls Up: Bogliano’s Latest a Decent But Frayed Exercise
Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s tenth feature film, Here Comes the Devil finally shows the Argentinean...
S#x Acts | Review
Sextette: Gurfinkel’s Debut an Uncomfortable Sashay into Female Victimhood
Exuding enough uncomfortable finesse to be ranked as one of several cinematic explorations that appear to...
Caught In the Web | Review
Once Upon a Time, in the Digital Age…: Chen’s Latest a Message Heavy Oddity
A critique of the hounding one sidedness of the omnipresent media...
Twice Born | Review
Emulating Almodóvar: Castellitto Employs Cruz To Pull Heartstrings
The renowned Italian actor turned middling director Sergio Castellitto returns to his place on both sides of...
Love Building | Review
Faulty Blueprint: Rugina’s Debut Pleasures the Crowd, Numbs the Mind
A certifiable hit at the Romanian box office, Iulia Rugina’s directorial debut, Love Building has...
La Jaula de Oro | Review
Trains of Innocence: Savage Road Story to the Land of Broken Dreams
Among the vast and redundant collection of tales dealing with illegal immigration, very...
We Are Mari Pepa | Review
Adolescent Grunge: Kishi Takes Musical Trip Into Adulthood
Undoubtedly making it difficult to find solemnity with a film that opens with a posse of teenagers...
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom | Review
Half Nelson: Chadwick’s Biopic Stretched Thin
An attempt to cover fifty years in the life of South African President Nelson Mandela in the time span...
Philomena | Review
Catholic Kisses: Frears’ Returns with a Loveable Crowd Pleaser
Just when you thought that Stephen Frears’ latest film, Philomena, would be yet another questionable exercise...
The Great Beauty | Review
La Dolce Vita: Sorrentino Visits Rome & Fellini in Opus-like Stroke
In Paolo Sorrentino's lavishly received Italian crime potboiler Il Divo, the stage is set...
Paris Countdown | Review
City of Neon Lights: Marie’s Debut a Soundtrack Assisted Cliché
How the title Paris Countdown was decided upon to stand as the English language translation...
How I Live Now | Review
There's No Place Like Home; Macdonald Pulled By Too Many Strings
This polished as his docu-work, Kevin Macdonald's fourth fiction feature is a little bit...
The Broken Circle Breakdown | Review
A Fiery Ring: Van Groeningen Turns to Somber Tragedy For Latest
Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen, whose previous three films explore ups and downs between...
Diana | Review
The Dish On Di: Hirschbiegel’s Dissection of Princess’ Last Two Years a Trifling Affair
Whether ambivalent or not about Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Princess Di biopic, Diana,...
