Tag: top-stories
Video Interview: Francesca Reale – Dating and New York
Francesca Reale is soon to be a household name. You may remember her gruesome fate in Stranger Things 3, or her more straight-laced roles...
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To | 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Only the Lonely: Cuartas Finds No Forgiveness of Blood in Striking Debut
With a film which could have easily borrowed the title of the similarly...
Video Interview: Jonah Feingold – Dating and New York
First-time feature filmmaker Jonah Feingold’s Dating and New York is a winsome rom-com, yes, but it’s also much more. A mordant anti-fairy tale about...
TIFF 2021: Wright’s Last Night in Soho & Davies’ Benediction Among 13 Titles Announced
With Theodore Melfi's The Starling and Antoine Fuqua's The Guilty among the thirteen titles that the Toronto International Film Festival have unveiled today we...
God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya | Review
Cross to Bear: Mitevska’s Playful Yet Potent Critique of the Heteropatriarchy
Disarming thanks to its charming tone, which could mistakenly be defined as slight, Macedonian...
Gaia [Video Review]
Fungus Among Us: Bouwer Delivers Eco-Horror Slow Burn
Ecological horror films have taken on a somewhat lusty, unprecedented gravity in the wake of the COVID-19...
Summer of 85 (Été 85) | Review
Summertime Sadness: Ozon Casts Yonder Glance at the Boys of Summer
Rare is the year without a fresh offering from perennial French favorite François Ozon,...
Roaring 20’s | 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Walking & Talking: Vogler Captures the Bustling & Bebopping of Distinctive Parisian Summer
Decades from now, the cinematic impact of projects conceived of and filmed...
The Kids | 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Review
The Kids Aren’t All Right: Martin Offers a Case Study on Exploitation from 90s Cult Film
It’s mind boggling to look back on the not-too-distant...
2021 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight: Carrère, Muntean, Hogg, Barnard & Carpignano Selected
Names such as Miguel Gomes, Pietro Marcello, Alice Rohrwacher, Matías Piñeiro, Eddie Alcazar and even a Panahi in Jafar Panahi’s son, Panah Panahi are...
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It [Video Review]
Satan’s Cheerleaders: Chaves Dowses Shallow Waters in Spiritless Witch Hunt
As we continue to plunder the mixed-up files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the infamous...
Gully [Video Review]
Goodbye South Central, Goodbye: Elderkin Grapples with Uneven Urban Soap Opera
If Donald Goines had written YA literature, it might have looked something like Gully,...
Port Authority [Video Review]
Category is The Realness: Lessovitz Isn’t Strictly Ballroom in Star Crossed Romance
To acknowledge the formidable, everlasting impact of Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris is...
2021 Cannes Critic’s Week: Clara Roquet, Leyla Bouzid & Vincent Le Port Selected
With a half dozen filmmakers vying for the Palme d'Or next month (and worth mentioning actress turned director Hafsia Herzi made the move from...
2021 Cannes Critics’ Week Announce 1st Selection: Bourgeois-Tacquet’s “Les Amours d’Anaïs”
While we await next week's line-up unveilings to complete the full Croisette picture and ponder if the likes of helmers Clara Roquet (Libertad), Mari...
Undine | Review
Till Human Voices Wake Us: Petzold Gets Mythologically Romantic
A classical figure of mythology and beyond, the Undine (or Siren), a water nymph creature who’s...
Video Interview: Zaida Bergroth & Alma Pöysti – Tove
Finland’s official submission for the ‘Best International Feature’ category at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021 is Tove, the fifth film from Zaida Bergroth,...
My Tender Matador | Review
Pray Away the Pinochet: Sepulveda Cruises Castro with Striking Adaptation
While there’s a bounty of burgeoning directors who have grown out of the New Chilean...
Michel Franco Washed Ashore with Tim Roth & Charlotte Gainsbourg on “Driftwood”
We're thinking that Michel Franco might shore up in Cannes as a producer for Lorenzo Vigas' highly anticipated The Box, but he could possibly...
Cruella [Video Review]
Cruella Intentions: Gillespie Recuperates Another Villainess in Perky Origin Story
Those familiar with a particular period of pseudo-morbid live-action Disney productions from the 1970s and...
Seance [Video Review]
The Girlfriend Experience: Barrett Mines B-Movie Tropes in Hybrid Throwback
There’s no greater hotbed of dysfunction and perversity than the homosocial staples of either the...
A Quiet Place Part II [Video Review]
Islands in the Stream: Krasinski Doesn’t Disappoint with Long Awaited Genre Sequel
There’s something intrinsically inviting about the grueling survival odyssey of the Abbott family,...
Adoration | Review
Gloria, You’re Always on the Run Now: Du Welz Completes Ardennes Trilogy with Innocence Lost in Dark Fairy Tale
An exercise wherein true and unfaltering...
The Retreat [Video Review]
The Hateful Straights: Mills Finds Bigots in the Backwoods in Exploitation Effort
One of the many silver linings of genre filmmaking is the powerful...
Spring Blossom (Seize printemps) | Review
The Flower of Her Secret: Lindon Conquers a Crush in Directorial Debut
Exemplifying the sincere transitional period Britney Spears famously moaned about when she sang...
Army of the Dead [Video Review]
Undead Again: Snyder’s Zest for Zombies Revisited in Fun, Derivative Ensemble
Director Zack Snyder moves beyond the superhero universe following his anticipated enhancement of the...
New Order | Review
How Does It Feel, To Treat Me Like You Do?: Franco Flies Into Traumas of Totalitarianism
It’s a sign of the times, wherein an apocalyptic...
Those Who Wish Me Dead [Video Review]
The Fire This Time: Sheridan’s Neo-Western Arrives Lifeless, Overbaked
Casting is an important part of the filmmaking process, and sometimes the highest profile celebrity...
Spiral: From the Book of Saw [Video Review]
Spin Spin Murder: Bousman Returns to the Good Book in Franchise Tangent
There’s perhaps little glory in holding the distinction of being the ‘best’ entry...
Riders of Justice [Video Review]
Chances Are: Jensen Gets Improbable in Violent Soap Opera
Denmark’s Anders Thomas Jensen brings his offbeat skills at scripted ensembles to his fifth feature as...
The Woman in the Window [Video Review]
Dial V for Voyeur: Wright Waxes Hitchcockian in Enjoyable Neo Noir
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” said Oscar Wilde, “that mediocrity can pay...
Oxygen [Video Review]
All I Need is the Air That I Breathe: Aja Gets Air/Time in Unique Thriller
Alexandre Aja, initially classified as a member of the “Splat...
The Killing of Two Lovers [Video Review]
Love Fool(s): Machoian Presents Scenes from an Imploding Marriage
Despite lip service to the contrary, it would seem love and marriage do not, indeed, go...
Monster [Video Review]
Fait Accompli: Mandler Mines the Gray Zone of Truth and Consequences
While more of an interesting conversation piece than the accomplished melodrama it deserves to...
Above Suspicion | Review
Investigation of a Citizen: Noyce Can’t Get in Formation with True Crime Chronicle
In 1943, Joan Crawford and John Wayne fought the Nazis. Christopher Reeve...
Wrath of Man [Video Review]
Money for Nothin’: Ritchie Wreaks Havoc in Violent L.A. Neo-Noir
At long last, Guy Ritchie returns to his roots with Wrath of Man, a violent...
Here Today [Video Review]
Make Way for Tomorrow: Crystal Courts Catharsis in Uneven Odd Couple Comedy
It’s been over twenty years since Billy Crystal stepped behind the camera, even...
Four Good Days [Video Review]
My Opioid Teacher: Garcia Tackles Addiction in Hokey Reunion with Close
Films dealing with drug addiction may have evolved considering the changing landscape of...
Interview: Jeffrey Wright & A$AP Rocky – Anthony Mandler’s Monster
Acting mainstay Jeffrey Wright jumps between mainstream and indie productions like it’s his job. In fact, it is: Wright’s résumé includes Broadway (Angels in...
Interview: Kelvin Harrison Jr. – Anthony Mandler’s Monster
Kelvin Harrison Jr. first came to Sundance with Birth of a Nation in 2016, then Oscar-nominated Mudbound in 2017. This past year, he was...
Interview: Producers Tonya Lewis Lee, Nikki Silver, Mike Jackson, Daniel Crown & Yoni Liebling – Anthony Mandler’s Monster
Sundance ’18 crowd-favorite Monster tells the agonizing tale of a 17-year-old honors student in a racially-charged legal battle. Adapted from Walter Dean Meyers’ award-winning...
About Endlessness [Video Review]
Beauty & Banality: Andersson Ponders the Void in Potential Final Film
There might be no greater spiritual absurdist than Sweden’s premiere arthouse auteur Roy Andersson,...
Separation [Video Review]
Divorce of Force: Bell Peddles Puppets in Congested Ghost Story
“Separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved,” per Outkast’s 2003 track Hey Ya!, and one...
Things Heard & Seen [Video Review]
Resident Evil: Berman & Pulcini Conjure a Satisfying Genre Throwback
Studio output of the 1970s, during the golden age of New American Cinema, allowed for...
Cliff Walkers | Review
A Cliff Too Far: Yimou Navigates Tortured Times in Period Espionage Thriller
Arguably the most successful and prolific of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers,...
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse [Video Review]
Repatriate Games: Sollima & Sheridan Opt for Clear & Present Danger with Tepid Clancy Adaptation
It’s so Clancy, you already know. Although we’ve seen resurgent...
Limbo | Review
Immigrant Song: The Personal is Political in Sharrock’s Quietly Sincere Portrait of Asylum Seeker
The plight of the political asylum seeker is a complex situation...
The County | Review
The Sorrows of Milk: Hákonarson Returns for More Rural Retribution
Iceland’s Grímur Hákonarson heads to Norma Rae (1979) territory in the agricultural hinterlands with third...
Together Together | Review
A Womb of One’s Own: Beckwith Basks in Basics with Sterile Dramedy
The tricky intersections of gestational surrogacy provide a scenario automatically rife with narrative...
Mortal Kombat | Review
Enter the Franchise: McQuoid Revives the Fisticuffs & Fantasies of Beloved Video Game
In the continual fluctuations of franchise reboots and revivals, the resurgence of...
