Tag: top-stories
JT + The Tennessee Kids | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Demme & Timberlake Don Suit & Tie In Masterful 20/20 Experience Concert Doc
It’s been 32 years since Jonathan Demme immortalized David Byrne and the...
The Girl on the Train | Review
Those Who Love Me Can Fake the Train: Taylor’s Silly Soap Opera Thriller
Actor turned director Tate Taylor proves to be even less adept crafting...
Being 17 | Review
Changing Times: Téchiné Skews Youthful with Enjoyable Drama
Director André Téchiné manages his most emotionally rewarding venture in well over a decade with Being 17,...
The Birth of a Nation | Review
Born Again: Parker Resuscitates Turner Narrative in Painful Labor of Love
An odd, continued legacy of unquestioned applause greets the reception of actor Nate Parker’s...
The Greasy Strangler | Review
Grease is the Word: Hosking’s Repellant Debut Revels in Grotesque
There’s a certain insane glee lurking within Jim Hosking’s directorial debut, The Greasy Strangler, a...
Criterion Collection: Cat People | Blu-ray Review
The concept of ‘psychological horror’ is a genre notion all but extinct in modern cinematic renderings of thriller narratives, a once lucrative subgenre considered...
Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children | Review
Let’s Do the Time Loop Again: Burton’s Back with Another Belabored Children’s Fantasy
The time has long since passed when Tim Burton was able to...
Betty (1992) | Review
Betty’s Blue: Chabrol’s Compelling Character Study of Victimhood and Agency
Claude Chabrol, dubbed the Alfred Hitchcock after rising out of the Nouvelle Vague, began his...
The Color of Lies (1999) | Review
The Hole Truth: Chabrol Explores What Lies Beneath the Chilly Idyll in Brittany
The continually clever and constantly rueful Claude Chabrol ended his stretch of...
Criterion Collection: Blood Simple | Blu-Ray Review
Now among the most distinctive of American auteurs, it’s hard to believe Joel and Ethan Coen had a difficult time getting their first film,...
The Conversation: Jenkins’ Moonlight, Escalante’s The Untamed & the Totality of TIFF ’16
As far as the matter of size goes, the Toronto International Film Festival continues to astound, with close to 300 plus titles amassed for...
TIFF 2016: Jordan M. Smith’s Top Five Documentaries
In a blur of motion in the dark, another TIFF has already come and gone. Of the 296 features offered this year, I managed...
Frantz | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
The Guest Who’s Coming to Dinner: Ozon’s Period Culture Clash a Handsome, Uninvolving Production
In many ways, Francois Ozon’s output still swings jaggedly between the...
Indivisible | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
It Takes Two: De Angelis Crafts Distinctive Neapolitan Drama on Siamese Twins
Siamese twins have always made alluring subjects for the cinema, whether at the...
Hermia & Helena | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Like so many other filmmakers from around the world, the Buenos Aires born writer/director Matías Piñeiro has found himself straddling borders with his latest...
City of Tiny Lights | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Farewell, My Lovely: Travis Tries Urban Neo Noir in Prosaic Adaptation
One gets the sense the source novel by Patrick Neate is a bit more...
Daguerrotype | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Spirits of the Dead: Kurosawa Continues Ghostly Leitmotifs in First French Language Film
Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes a surprise venture into French language cinema...
The War Show | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Demonstrating To Breathe: Heartbreaking Spiral Into Syrian Oblivion Moves in Micro-Operatic Movements
Syria and the Arab Spring are not exactly new subjects for a documentary...
Godless | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Just a Slob Like One of Us: Petrova Paints Bleak Portrait of Bulgarian Stupor
Judging from a recent slew of titles touring the festival circuit...
Orphan | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Woman Thou Art Loosed: Des Pallieres Disorientates with Fractured Character Portrait
Between constantly shifting time periods and abrupt transitions from one clutch of characters to...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Travis Gutiérrez Senger’s Top Ten Films of All Time List
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile, we...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Travis Gutiérrez Senger (Desert Cathedral)
IONCINEMA.com’s IONCINEPHILE of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. A winner at the SXSW and Tribeca Film...
Zoology | 2016 Toronto Int. Film Festival Review
Tale of Tails: Tverdovsky’s Myopic Modern Fable Chases Its Own Tail
Zoology. You ask, what does it mean? For the purposes of Ivan Tverdovsky’s sophomore...
Demon | Review
A Dybbuk Got Your Baby: Wrona’s Atmospheric Blend of Horror and History
For his third feature, Marcin Wrona adapts Piotr Rowicki’s stage play Adherence into...
London Road | Review
The Kindness of Stranglers: Norris Mounts Film Version of Macabre Musical
Those familiar with the infamous 2011 musical London Road should be pleased with this...
Klown Forever | Review
In Heart a Clown: Norgaard Takes another Spin with Popular Man-Children Duo
For those familiar with the various trials and travails of best buddies Casper...
The Light Between Oceans | Review
To the Lighthouse: Cianfrance Labors Through Melodrama in Handsome Period Piece
Director Derek Cianfrance manages a series of firsts with his fourth feature, including his first...
In Order of Disappearance | Review
Gone Baby Gone: Moland’s Deadpan Nordic Noir Enhanced by Skarsgard
There’s a droll viciousness to In Order of Disappearance, a Nordic Neo-Noir which premiered...
Mia Madre | Review
Mamma Mia: Moretti’s Continues Exploring a Death in the Family
After having won the Palme d’Or in 2001 for his film The Son’s Room, Italian...
The Sea of Trees | Review
The Forest for the Trees: Van Sant’s Melodramatic Misfire
Gus Van Sant’s name seems to conjure wildly different reactions depending on how accustomed one is...
Don’t Breathe | Review
Secret in Their Eyes: Alvarez Conjures Tension in Home Invasion Thriller
After unveiling his grisly and rather well received directorial debut, the 2013 remake of...
Spa Night | Review
Hot and Bothered: Ahn’s Debut a Knowing Character Study
As proof of the multitudinous, untold human stories happening at any given period within the sprawling...
Imperium | Review
Made in USA: Radcliffe Infiltrates Neo-Nazi Faction in Solid Potboiler
Daniel Radcliffe impresses once again in an unlikely bit of casting as an FBI agent...
Last Days in the Desert | DVD Review
Ewan McGregor stars as both Jesus and the devil in Rodrigo Garcia’s seventh narrative feature, Last Days in the Desert, which premiered at the...
Blood Father | Review
Forgiveness of Blood: Richet Delivers Grimy Gibson in Slice of B-Movie Glory
If you’re looking for any sort of striking originality in French director Jean-Francois...
Florence Foster Jenkins | Review
Florence and the Machine: Frears Lets the Music Speak for Itself in Curio Biopic
In recent years, the quality of output from British director Stephen...
Sun Choke | Review
Choke Up the Sun: Cresciman’s Dubious Deliberation on the Female Psyche
Mentally unstable women with fragile personalities formulate a vibrant subgenre of their own across...
Little Men | Review
Gentrified Agreement: Sachs’ Poignant Examination of a Childhood Friendship
For his sixth feature, Ira Sachs returns to Brooklyn with Little Men, a perceptive study of...
Suicide Squad | Review
Monsters, Inc.: Ayer’s DC Comic Mashup is All Bark and No Bite
Try as he might, director David Ayer’s valiant efforts to counter the onslaught...
Equity | Review
Greed is God: Menon Crafts Terse, Uneven Femme-Centric Wall Street Noir
Meera Menon follows up her 2013 road-trip comedy Farah Goes Bang with a low-fi...
Jason Bourne | Review
Bourne Again Again: Greengrass Returns to Action Franchise with Middling Results
Director Paul Greengrass returns to the Robert Ludlum action franchise he inherited from Doug...
Interview: Anne Fontaine (The Innocents)
I sat down with Anne Fontaine shortly after her latest film, The Innocents (formerly “Agnus Dei”) premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The increasingly...
Star Trek Beyond | Review
Back to Basics: Lin Takes Another Franchise Where It Has Bravely Gone Before
Director Justin Lin (Fast and Furious installments three, four, five, and six)...
Don’t Think Twice | Review
Funnier People: Birbiglia’s Sincere Dramedy Examines Failure, Success
Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s sophomore directorial effort Don’t Think Twice is a rather melancholy, ambitious rendering of the...
Summertime | Review
An Affair to Remember: Corsini’s Enjoyable, Brightly Hued Period Piece
Catherine Corsini returns with her ninth feature film, Summertime (La belle saison), an early 70s...
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie | Review
Filth and Wisdom: Saunders and Lumley Can’t Get Back to Where They Started From
This wheel doesn’t so much as explode as it does simply...
The Childhood of a Leader | Review
The Children Are Watching Us: Corbet’s Chilling Directorial Debut Contemplates Familial Fascism
Potent psychological complexity often feels compromised in favor of establishing easy to...
The Whispering Star | 2016 Japan Cuts Film Festival Review
The Human Factor: Sono’s Somber Allusions to the Allegory of the Cave
When one contemplates the continuously expanding filmography of Japanese auteur Sion Sono, hyperbolic...
Ghostbusters | Review
Dose of a Ghost: Feig Delivers Funny, Feminized Franchise Entry
Overshadowed by the ill will of an alarmingly misogynist fanboy culture since its initial inception,...
Equals | Review
Sweet Emotion: Doremus Does Dystopia on Enjoyable, Recognizable Canvas
Emotions cannot be controlled, but they also cannot be allowed to control you. At least, that...
