Tag: Foreign Film Review
Bastarden (The Promised Land) | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Good Earth: Arcel Inherits the Wind with Romanticized Historical Recuperation
After making his English language debut with the imperiled Stephen King adaptation The Dark...
L’ordine del tempo | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Time After Time: Cavani Commits Time Crimes in Overwrought Farce
What does time mean when we’re all out of it? Thus is the quagmire...
Comandante | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
And the Sea Will Tell: De Angelis Sells the Soft Side of Fascism
Napolitano director Edoardo De Angelis embarks on his most lavish offering to...
Piaffe | Review
Horse Girl: Oren Gets Hot to Trot in Strange, Alluring Debut
What is it about horses, exactly, and their tacit parallels with subterranean conduits of...
Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation | Review
Death in the Garden: Chebbi Debuts Eerie, Nuanced Murder Mystery
In a supremely frightening sense, the events transpiring in Ashkal (which means ‘shapes’ in Arabic) recalls...
Love Life | Review
Love the One You’re With: Fukada Explores Love and Death as Unhappy Accidents
The instability of romance is the only real given in the intimate...
Stepne | 2023 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Land That Time Forgot: Vroda Mines Eroding Memories in Speculative Debut
Thomas Wolfe meant You Can’t Go Home Again metaphorically, but such might literally...
Animal | 2023 Locarno Film Festival Review
Boogie Nights: Exarchou Doses Summertime Sadness in Achy Melodrama
For anyone who’s ever wondered what life might be like for employees at any tourist trap...
Return to Dust | Review
The Good Earth: Ruijun Crafts Poignant Portrait of Transformative Love
Director Li Ruijun returns to familiar themes in his sixth feature, Return to Dust, a...
Final Cut (Coupez!) | Review
Primetime Cut: Hazanavicius Returns to Absurdity with Overdone Zombie Remake
Michel Hazanavicius has certainly established his affection for the nonsensical, making a name for himself...
Afire | Review
Pleasure to Burn: Petzold Stokes the Flames in Diffident Drama
A fragile male ego finds itself dismantled in Afire (Roter Himmel), the second chapter...
Nobody’s Hero (Viens je t’emmène) | Review
We Don’t Need Another Hero: Guiraudie Gets Kooky in Political Comedy of Errors
Alain Guiraudie migrates from rural perversity to urban calamity in the comically...
Scarlet (L’Envol) | Review
Come Sail Away: Marcello Runs Aground in Muddled Adaptation
Pietro Marcello returns to literature for inspiration in his third narrative feature (and French language debut),...
Padre Pio | Review
In the Name of the Father: Ferrara Explore Infamous Saint with Guerrilla Branded Biopic
Like many of Abel Ferrara’s projects hobbled by various production issues,...
Falcon Lake | Review
Baptism by Water: Unrequited Longing & Fear Found in Le Bon's Simmering Debut
In a perfect swirl of the uninitiated and inhibition, in her directorial...
Unclenching the Fists | Review
So Daddy, I’m Finally Through: Kovalenko Explores Familial Dysfunction in Rural Melodrama
The suppression of women by the heteropatriarchy is tale as ancient as civilization,...
Il sol dell’avvenire (A Brighter Tomorrow) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
If You Don’t Die Today: Moretti Can’t Find the Rhythm in Musical Delusion
To say the latest film from Nanni Moretti, Il sol dell'avvenire (A Brighter...
Rien à perdre (All to Play For) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Other People’s Children: Deloget Butts with Bureaucracy in Familial Drama
Virginie Efira continues to explore the arduous spectrum of contemporary motherhood in her latest film,...
Kidnapped (Rapito) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
A Soul to Take: Bellocchio Deliriously Dissects a Papal Delictum
Marco Bellocchio has lost none of his flair nor his energetic zest in his latest...
The Buriti Flower (Crowrã) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Rites of Resistance: Messora & Salaviza Provide Historical Ellipses of the Krahô
Researching a community without causing hindrance or harm has long been a concern...
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
The End of the Affair: Naveriani Finds Love in a Hopeless Place
Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani solidifies her gravitational pull towards examining rural social misfits...
Il pleut dans la maison (It’s Raining in the House) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Baby the Rain Must Fall: Life Imitates Art in Serman-Daï’s Narrative Debut
There’s a literalness in It’s Raining In The House (Il pleut dans la maison)...
Les meutes (Hounds) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Wash Away Your Sins: The Apple Falls a Bit Further Out From the Tree in Lazraq’s Stunning Debut
Father and son learn the power of...
Le retour | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Put a Label on It: Corsini’s Corsica is a Lieu for Inter & Intra-personal Growth
Napoleon Bonaparte’s birthplace is certainly a site rich in history...
Ama Gloria | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Cléo Entre 5 et 7: Everyone Shares the Same Song in Amachoukeli’s Sophisticated Sophomore Feature
Letting go is never easy but what happens when it’s...
The Night of the 12th | Review
Hero Complex: Moll Refreshes Detective Procedural with Cat's Paw Narrative
With his early naughts (With a Friend Like Harry..., Lemming) and grisly disappearance thriller Only...
Butterfly Vision | Review
Coming Home: Nakonechnyi Explores Collateral Damage in Prescient Drama
While the near decade long conflict between Russian and Ukraine has spilled into full-blown war, a...
BlackBerry | Review
Hold the Phone: Johnson Delivers the Ballad of the BlackBerry
Exposing the accidental alchemy which generated the titular BlackBerry, the world’s first Smartphone (and as...
Monica | Review
Portrait of a Lady: Pallaoro Quietly Searches for Grace in Profound Reconciliation
There’s a relentless, nearly crushing sense of heartache girding Andrea Pallaoro’s Monica, his...
R.M.N. | Review
On a Racist Day You Can See Forever: Mungiu Confronts Nationalism in Fractious Drama
On the surface, R.M.N., the latest feature from Romanian New Wave...
Winter Boy (Le Lycéen) | Review
Hazy Shade of Winter: Honore Deals with a Death in the Family in Sincere Coming-of-Age
Christophe Honoré has built an intricate filmography on the backs...
Les Enfants des Autres (Other People’s Children) | Review
Sex and Longing: Efira Shines in Zlotowski’s Portrait of Missed Opportunities
In a celebrated tradition of quietly personal characterizations French cinema is known for, Rebecca...
Plan 75 | Review
Aging Disgracefully: Hayakawa Questions Institutional & Internalized Ageism
If a septuagenarian falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it...
Smoking Causes Coughing | Review
Vigilante Shanty: Kooky Becomes Dupieux in Latest Whimsy
Quentin Dupieux’s penchant for absurdity shows no signs of abating, with Smoking Causes Coughing, the latest offering...
Tori et Lokita | Review
Suffer the Children: The Dardenne Bros. Trend of Neorealism Continues in Dismal Portrait of Migrant Children
The Dardenne Bros. have built a significant filmography showcasing...
Petite Solange | Review
Bonjour Tristesse: Ropert Explores Rude Awakenings in Tender Coming-of-Age Portrait
“What am I doing in this world?” wrote Paul Verlaine in his classic poem “The...
Les Cinq diables (The Five Devils) | Review
Devil May Care: Mysius Delivers Intriguing but Disappointing Romantic Genre Mishmash
For her sophomore feature debut, director/screenwriter Léa Mysius aims high and falls hard with...
Rimini | Review
Bravo New World: Seidl Returns with Desolate Portrait of Fallen Hustler
There’s always a healthy thread of humor lurking under the despair of Ulrich Seidl’s...
Rodéo | Review
All Gas No Brakes: Quivoron’s Debut Fails to Hit Pay Dirt
Further exploring the dirt-bike sub-culture she first examined in her short Dreaming of Baltimore...
Are You Lonesome Tonight? | Review
Unhappy Together: Shipei Concocts Romantic Neo-noir
Director Wen Shipei strikes an oddly satisfying balance between broody Neo-noir and simmering romance with his debut Are You...
Fugue | Review
Staring into the Known: Smoczyńska Offers Low-key, Uncompromising Sophomore Feature
Surely not the follow up effort audiences might have had in mind from the creator...
Till the End of the Night | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Night Boos: Hochhäusler Bungles Black Market Crime Thriller
Blending fatal romanticism and B-movie genre tropes, it’s not difficult to see where a certain Fassbinder sensibility...
The Survival of Kindness | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Lady in a Cage: de Heer’s Dystopia Explores the Enduring Echoes of Colonialism
Dutch-born director Rolf de Heer has been a mainstay of Australian cinema...
Living Bad (Viver Mal) | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
The Mirror Has Two Faces: Canijo’s Customers Are Always Blight with Inverse Melodrama
“Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn for ever, it...
Bad Living | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
The Best Exotic Portugal Hotel: Canijo Examines Motherhood as Misanthropy in Masterful Familial Miasma
The women handling the specialty boutique hotel in Joao Canijo’s Mal...
Le grand chariot (The Plough) | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Father Knows Best: Garrel’s Family Affair Flounders in Banality
Although co-credited to the late, great Jean-Claude Carrière and starring a whole gaggle of the Garrel...
Ingeborg Bachmann – Journey into the Desert | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Road to Nowhere: Von Trotta Presents the Basics on Bachmann
Throughout her career, Margarethe Von Trotta, a key figure from the New German Wave of...
The Teachers’ Lounge | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Dangerous Finds: Catak Mines the Impossibility of Idealism in Departmental Dilemma
Sometimes maintaining the semblance of a ‘safe space’ means sublimating self-righteousness, a lesson learned...
The Beast in the Jungle | 2023 Berlin Film Festival Review
Waiting for the Stars to Align: Chiha Finds Fruit Rotting on the Vine
“Good things come to those who wait” might be a commonly bastardized...
Return to Seoul | Review
Do You Know Where You’re Going To?: Chou Explores Identity & Adoption Through Complex Character Portrait
Davy Chou returns with an intimate, unpredictable portrait of...
