Tag: Foreign Film Review
Love (Kjærlighet) | Review
Ain’t Nothin’ But Sex Misspelled: Haugerud Continues Quiet, Earnest Talking Cure Trilogy
Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud continues his sexuality-themed film trilogy (Sex/Dreams/Love) in Love,...
Sister Midnight | Review
Crazy On You: Kandhari’s Strange Fantasy of Madness
It’s been nearly twenty years since director Karan Kandhari’s 2005 debut Bye Bye Miss Goodnight (since then working on...
The Damned | Review
The Damned Do Cry: Minervini Details a Doomed Mission
For his first narrative feature, Roberto Minervini tackles another aspect of the evolving American identity with The...
Caught by the Tides | Review
The Tide is High: Zhangke Splices Thwarted Romance Across Changing Times
Filmmaker Jia Zhangke presents something of an experimental anomaly with his latest feature, Caught...
Black Tea | Review
Spill the Tea: Sissako Flounders with Tepid Brew
The level of ineptitude apparent in every regard of Black Tea, Abderrahmane Sissako’s first narrative feature in...
La cocina | Review
Soap Kitchen: Ruizpalacios Underwhelms & Over Bakes Food Drama
Making his English language debut with fourth feature La Cocina, based on the notable stage play...
Bonjour Tristesse | Review
Lifestyles of the Rich, Conflicted & Coddled: Dull Vacation in the South of France for Debut
Ah, summer in the south of France. The cerulean...
Most People Die on Sundays | Review
A Month of Sundays: Said Squeezes Magic Out of Melancholy
The tagline for Iair Said’s sophomore film More People Die on Sundays (Los domingos mueren...
The Scary House | 2025 Udine Far East Film Festival Review
Watanabe Smarter Than Ghosts, but The Scary House Had Other Plans
Venturing into the horror genre for the first time, Japanese indie filmmaker Watanabe Hirobumi’s...
April | Review
A Vindicated Woman: Kulumbegashvili Constructs Potent, Profound Study in Body Horror
I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves,”...
The Shrouds | Review
Death Be Not Shroud: Cronenberg Hits Dead Ends in Sluggish Mystery
The burial business serves as the battle ground for a complicated conundrum in David...
A Traveler’s Needs | Review
The Traveler Has Come: Huppert Shines in Latest Collaboration with Sang-soo
There are few directors who seem to rightly channel the comic side of Isabelle...
Grand Tour | Review
Runaway Groom: Gomes Charts a Barren Odyssey
In what serves as an extremely taxing personification of cold feet, Miguel Gomes feels as if he’s...
Holy Cow | Review
Smells Like Entrepreneurial Spirit!: Courvoisier Climbs Up the Totone Poll
In her directorial debut, Louise Courvoisier delves into themes of altruism and resilience, navigating a...
Being Maria | Review
Forever Noor: Palud’s Schneider Moves From Being a Passenger to Just Saying Non
Since the advent of cinema, it’s been standard operating procedure for the...
The Assessment | Review
The Parent Trap: Elizabeth Olsen Tries Not to Break In Fleur Fortuné’s Debut The Assessment
The one thing you can count as the world gets...
Honey Bunch | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love Like This Before: Sims-Fewer & Mancinelli Examine the Ethics of Love
Canadian filmmaking duo Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli follow up their disturbing 2020...
Who by Fire (Comme le feu) | Review
Into the Woods: Lesage Explores Wounded Masculinities
In Vincent Sherman’s 1943 Bette Davis-led melodrama Old Acquaintance, the complex relationship between a pair of female frenemies...
An Unfinished Film | Review
The Act of Watching: Lou Ye Mixes Picture Lock Dreams & Lock Down Nightmares
Does a film exist if it was never completed? It’s a...
The Empire (L’Empire) | Review
The Satire Strikes Back: Dumont Claims His Own Multi-Verse
It’s sometimes difficult to predict what mode French auteur Bruno Dumont will be choosing for his...
World War III | Review
War & Fleece: Seyyedi’s Swiftly Shifting Satire Explores the Corrupting Nature of Power
In one of the most unromanticized depictions of the filmmaking process, Iranian...
La cache (The Safe House) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
May Days: Baier’s Broad Commentary on a Revolutionary Footnote
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people,” said Eleanor Roosevelt. Dipping...
Yunan | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Nothing is Everything: Eldin’s Continuing Exploration of Existential Crisis
For his sophomore film Yunan, intended as the second chapter in a thematic trilogy following 2021’s...
Mother’s Baby | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby: Moder Repeats Motherhood Horrors
A palpable, instinctual fascination with the potential horrors of pregnancy are exactly why neonatal dread...
The Message (El mensaje) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Gates of Heaven: Fund Explores Creature Comforts from Beyond
“We are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we...
What Marielle Knows | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Best Little Secrets Are Kept: Hambalek’s Absurdly Skewers the Virtues of Honesty
Honesty may indeed be the best policy and maybe the truth might...
On vous croit (We believe you) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
High Tension: Deville & Dufeys Suffer the Children in Jittery Debut
Tossing us right into the hellfire of an acutely agonizing situation, Charlotte Deville and...
Girls on Wire | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Mad Bills to Pay: Qu Stages Miserabilist Soap Opera
If Girls on Wire settles on anything clear to say it’s quite simply that crime doesn’t...
Hysteria | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Burn After Filming: Büyükatalay Explores Colliding Perspectives in Nuanced Drama
While it can’t be described as a classic thriller, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s sophomore film Hysteria...
Ari | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Murmur of the Heart: Serraille Conquers Indifference Through Sincerity
With her third feature, Ari, director Léonor Serraille confirms a clear pattern of interest in exploring...
The Best Mother in the World (A melhor mãe do mundo) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Life is Beautiful: Muylaert Takes Aim at Domestic Abuse in Heartfelt Drama
In A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World), the...
Home Sweet Home | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Sofie, Homemaker: Petersen Banks on Undervalued Emotional Labor
Danish director Frelle Petersen’s latest title Home Sweet Home (Hjem kaere hjem) aims to showcase the significant...
Parthenope | Review
The Boring & Beautiful: Sorrentino’s Tone Deaf Portrait of a Lady
It’s unfortunate no one’s as likely to be infatuated with the eponymous Parthenope (pronounced...
Bring Them Down | Review
Everybody Hurts: All Pain and No Gain in Christopher Andrews’ Debut Bring Them Down
If misery loves company, then Bring Them Down is a party....
Marcello Mio | Review
In the Name of the Father: Honore Pays Homage via Identity Crisis
“I only exist when I am working on a film,” Marcello Mastroianni...
I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) | Review
Still Missing: Salles Returns with Survivors of the Dictatorship
“The dictatorship’s mistakes was to torture but not kill,” former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro proudly claimed...
Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) | Review
Nora El Hourch’s Fiery Sisterhood is La Haine for the #MeToo Generation
Arriving like a molotov cocktail thrown through a plate glass window — or...
Eat the Night | Review
The Sway of the Sword: Reality Bytes in Poggi/Vinel's Bleak Online/Offline Portrait
Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's sophomore feature outing pulses with the heartbeat of...
Pepe | Review
Cocaine Hippo: de Los Santos Arias Explores an Assassination
To say Pepe, the second narrative feature from Dominican director Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias,...
Vermiglio | Review
Baby Machines: Delpero Designs Tapestry of Women’s Miseries During WWII Italy
Despite the associations suggested by its title, Maura Delpero’s sophomore film Vermiglio is a...
The Brutalist | Review
The Safety of Objectivism: Corbet Unleashes the Survival Instinct of Rational Egoism
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided...
The Room Next Door | Review
Triumph of the Will: Almodovar’s Muy Excelente English Debut
“Women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems,” wrote Virginia Woolf in...
Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo | 2024 Red Sea Intl. Film Festival Review
First Blood: Khaled Mansour’s Debut Follows A Man Ready To Fight For The Fate Of His Dog
In First Blood, John Rambo is a quiet...
The Order | Review
The True Story of a Racist Gang: Kurzel Explores Formative Chapter of American Domestic Terrorism
There’s a brooding, sinister quality to Justin Kurzel’s filmmaking, whose...
The Girl with the Needle | Review
Casa de los Babys: von Horn Hits a Bleak Streak
You know you’re in for something dark and dreary when a film opens upon a...
Power Alley (Levante) | Review
That Time of the Month: Halla Offers Ringside Seats to the Courts - Both On and Off
In one’s timeline, it’s the pre-adulthood teenage years...
The Seed of the Sacred Fig | Review
Way of the Gun: Rasoulof’s Bold, Blunt Indictment of Iranian Regime
There’s been little opportunity for artists to clearly or critically speak truth to power...
Queer | Review
(Disem)Body Talk: Guadagnino Pays Homage to the Paradoxical Beat Pariah
If Ayn Rand had dared to write a character who was a genius gay white...
Maria | Review
Songs from the Specious Floor: Larrain Imagines the Last Days of a Diva
A penny for the thoughts of Maria Callas regarding Pablo Larraín’s glossy...
All We Imagine as Light | Review
The Big City: Kapadia Designs Lovely Portrait of Friendship and Free Will
Mumbai is a city of illusions, a character remarks in Payal Kapadia’s debut...
