Tag: top-stories
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula
Zombie Nation: Sang-ho Widens the Net, Lessens the Scope in Sprawling Sequel
There is no room in the conceit ‘less is more,’ it seems, in...
Stage Mother | Review
Once Upon a Time, There Was Light in My Life: Fitzgerald Soars with Bittersweet Melodrama
A testament for the continual importance of narratives which explore...
The Bare Necessity | Review
I Think I Love You: Le Duc Looks for Love in Absurdist Comedy
“Is the life you’re living truly yours?” asks a whispery Fanny Ardant...
Random Acts of Violence | Review
The Violent Bear It Away: Baruchel Turns Murder into Art with Fragmented Debut
An exercise which navigates the oft-blurred lines between art and exploitation, actor...
The Silencing | Review
The Quiet Canadian: Pront Returns to the Woods with Canadian Thriller
Belgian director Robin Pront reveals his fixation with rural neo-noir in sophomore film and...
Project Power | Review
Speak Truth to Power: Schulman & Joost Present a Jagged Little Pill
Directing duo Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost continue their genre-tinged explorations of continually...
Sputnik | Review
This Time It’s Cold War: Abramenko Revamps a Xenomorph with Effective Potboiler
Just when you think a familiar formula might have run all its potential...
Unhinged | Review
Despite of His Rage: Borte Bottlenecks with Brutal Thriller
Road rage finds a suitable vehicle in the latest film from director Derrick Borte, Unhinged, which...
The Bay of Silence | Review
The Hand That Mocks the Cradle: van der Oest Overwhelms in Overstuffed Trauma Drama
Some inherent problems with adapting complex or labyrinthine novels into film...
Spree | Review
Click it or Ticket: Joe Keery Slays in Uber-Dark-Satire
Eugene Kotlyarenko’s fifth feature film is an outrageously satirical indictment of influencer culture with a commanding...
She Dies Tomorrow | Review
Bet Your Bottom Dollar: Seimetz Circles Existential Dread in Lowkey Genre
“Your deepest fear is spreading,” reads the tagline for Amy Seimetz’s sophomore directorial effort,...
An American Pickle | Review
Relish the Moment: Trost Attempts a New Colossus in Simplistic Comedy
In a familiar idea which sounds better on paper as a comedic scenario than...
I Used to Go Here | Review
Going, Going, Gone: Rey Finds Solace in Regression with Idle Dramedy
As a framing device, nostalgia has the slant of a moral lesson gleaned from...
The Secret Garden | Review
Garden of Earthly Dismay: Munden Makes Burnett Mundane in Lifeless Remake
There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away, and certainly...
Interview: Melina León – Song Without a Name
This past May, Melina León made history with her haunting debut feature, Song Without a Name, as the first female Peruvian director to premiere...
Host | Review
Ghost in the Machine: Savage Speaks to the Moment with Creative Horror
In what plays like a logical extension of the found footage subgenre, UK...
The Tax Collector | Review
Taxation without Representation: Ayer Gets Absurd in L.A. Crime Noir
The most interesting element of David Ayer’s latest crime thriller The Tax Collector is how...
Love is a Battlefield in Visconti’s Swan Song, L’innocente (1976) | Blu-ray Review
Premiering out of competition at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival just two months after he died from a stroke, Luchino Visconti’s final masterpiece, The...
The Burnt Orange Heresy | Review
Pleasure to Burn: Capotondi Returns with Entertaining Neo-Noir
Murder really can be turned into art, it seems, in Giuseppe Capotondi’s return to narrative filmmaking with...
Waiting for the Barbarians | Review
Enemy at the Gate: Guerra Heads to the International Frontier with Flat Coetzee Adaptation
The richness and heft of Ciro Guerra’s cinema gets lost somehow...
La Llorona | Review
No Woman, No Cry: Bustamante Reconfigures La Llorona as Avenging Equalizer
Though she was recently resurrected as a superficial money grab in this year’s Warner...
The Shadow of Violence | Review
Goodbye Horses: Rowland Riles Allegiances in Familiar Crime Thriller
It’s a tale as old as crime itself, the toppling of empires thanks to the shifting...
Skin Walker | Review
The Skin I Don’t Live In: Neuman Prepares a Fractured Affair in Disjointed Debut
All the technical elements of a creepy genre film are evident...
A Girl Missing | Review
Guilt by Dissociation: Fukada Explores the Burden of Others in Exemplary Melodrama
Director Kôji Fukada presents a melodrama hung on absurdity for his fourth feature,...
Summerland | Review
Castles in the Sky: Swale Finds Love During Wartime in Likeable Debut
Although it’s a somewhat simple and ultimately schmaltzy dose of narrative convenience, Jessica...
Radioactive | Review
Particle Decay: Satrapi Explores Curie in Elliptical, Stunted Biopic
The persona of Marie Curie is a no-brainer as far as cinematic importance and appeal goes,...
Lake of Death | Review
Dead Again: Robsahm Remake of Norwegian Classic is DOA
The inherent value of any remake, sequel or reboot is always the attention it funnels back...
Most Wanted | Review
Canada Dry: Roby Runs Circles in Derivative Poliziotteschi
Most Wanted (or as it was released in Canada, Target Number One), the fifth feature from French...
2020 TIFF: Mundruczó, Franco, Rosi, Jasmila Zbanic & Chaitanya Tamhane Among High Profile Selections
With the red carpets remaining in storage this year and A-list players making no plans to quarantine for two full weeks in Canada's capitol,...
I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost(s): Beck Storms Castle’s Camp Classic with Thir13en Ghosts (2001) | Blu-ray Review
There was a time when it appeared there might be an onslaught of remakes plundered from the often fun, often risible filmography of B-movie...
Yes, God, Yes | Review
Obvious Teen: Maine Finds Nostalgia in a Hopeless Place
Of the many aspects particular to the late 1990s and early 2000s, where cell phones were...
2020 Giornate degli Autori: Anouz’s Honey Cigar Opens & LaBruce’s Saint-Narcisse Closes Edition
Often referred to as the Italian version of the Directors' Fortnight, the first edition of the Giornate degli Autori / Venice Days under the...
Impetigore | Review
Grim Fairy Tale: Anwar Gets Garish in Excessive, Entertaining Horror Film
While Indonesian cinema has become more prominent on the festival circuit over the past...
The Rental | Review
This Property is Condemned: Franco Mines Interesting Ideas in Faulty Debut
Egregiously annoying characters can be either a blessing or a curse to a...
The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics | Book Review
Published just in time for perusal before David Fincher’s film Mank (an exploration of writer Herman Mankiewicz’s troubled development and aftermath with director Orson...
Amulet | Review
The Lying Nun: Garai Sways Scary with Stimulating Debut
Indeed, the female of the species is more deadly than the male even in the realm...
The Sunlit Night | Review
Norway Out: Wnendt Paints a Blank Slate in Slight Romantic Drama
Expectations seemed reasonably high for The Sunlit Night, the English language debut from provocative...
Interview: Author Tom Sturges – The Lady Eve | Criterion Collection
I had the chance to speak to Tom Sturges (noted music executive, author, and speaker), the son of director Preston Sturges, to converse about...
Fatal Affair | Review
Temptation Machination: Sullivan Explores Ills of Infidelity in Extramarital Thriller
“The house is new but the man is not,” jests the unfortunate protagonist in Peter...
IndieSponge Episode: 14 – 2020 Venice Film Festival Predictions
On this week’s episode of IndieSponge, I invited Tommaso Tocci to discuss the possible titles that might make it into the 2020 edition of...
The Painted Bird | Review
Cruel Intentions: Marhoul Razes & Repulses in Torturous, Ambitious WWII Saga
Czech actor/director Václav Marhoul mounts a sadistic nightmare of Holocaust horrors via his third...
Palm Springs | Review
Quantum Leap: Barbakow Recycles Tropes for Amusing Romantic Comedy Debut
The idea of being stuck in an endless time loop, being forced to endure the...
Greyhound | Review
Showboating: Schneider Sinks Ships with WWII Historical Action
Cinema is littered with war-time submarine action epics, a claustrophobic setting which taps into universal anxieties and...
Love Affair(s) | Cannes 2020 Label Review
The Most Important Thing is to Love: Mouret’s Loquacious Ode to Capricious Romance(s)
With narratives often constructed on the gossamer threads of human interactions, it’s...
Relic | Review
Dementia Seed: James Concocts Brooding Debut of Intergenerational Horror
A growing influx of low-fi genre films, many directed by women, have steadily redefined broad categorizations...
The Beach House | Review
And the Sea Will Kill: Brown’s Blends Menace with Familiar Tropes in Eco-Horror Debut
Horror films have often benefitted from man vs. nature themes, and...
We Are Little Zombies | Review
13 Stages of Grief: Nagahisa’s Game-Changing Debut
Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is a pure and delightful work of art. Crafted with love and...
The Old Guard | Review
No Man Could Be Their Equal: Prince-Bythewood Ponders Immortality with Graphic Novel Adaptation
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s fourth film is a marked departure from her previous...
Criterion Collection: An Unmarried Woman (1978) | Blu-ray Review
Academy-Award nominated writer/director Paul Mazursky makes his first entry into the Criterion canon with his sixth feature, the seminal (first-wave) feminist landmark An Unmarried...
The Truth | Review
I Remember Mama: Kore-eda Anoints Deneuve as a Diva in Pleasurable Drama
A subtle exercise in the limited reality of both perspective and memory, auteur...
