Tag: top-stories
The Postcard Killings | Review
Postcards from the Dredge: Tanovic’s English Language Debut a Major Misfire
Films presenting serial killers who desire to make like The Police and turn murder...
Interview: Katharine O’Brien – Lost Transmissions
Director Katharine O’Brien makes her feature debut with Lost Transmissions, an LA-set drama about mental illness and its effect on a budding friendship between...
The Roads Not Taken | Review
Roadside Assistance: Potter Putters in Nonsensical Melodrama
Who is the nearly catatonic man being dragged through New York by his overly sincere daughter? His name...
Interview: Jason Orley, Griffin Gluck + Cast & Crew – Big Time Adolescence
Did you ever befriend your older sister’s boyfriend—then stay friends with him long after they’d broken up? OK, Big Time Adolescence is a very...
The Hunt | Review
The Most Capitalist Game: Zobel Skewers Class Consciousness with Ribald Satire
Social satire is perhaps the only conducive way to narratively navigate the ills...
Hope Gap | Review
Mind the Gap: Nicholson’s Intimate Divorce Story Drama
The emotional devastation of a divorce girds the intimate dramatic underpinnings of Hope Gap, a quiet and...
The Way Back | Review
Whisky Galore: Affleck Shines in Character Study on Regret & Retribution
Reception theory often dictates a morbid confluence when consuming entertainment which reflects a kernel...
Straight Up | Review
Is It Gonna Be You and Me Forever?: Sweeney Sparks Romance in Loquacious Debut
James Sweeney makes his directorial debut with Straight Up, an odd-couple...
Bacurau | Review
It Takes a Village: Filho & Dornelles Smash Art-House into Grindhouse
A heady melding of local cultural motifs, morbid politically-minded histories and exploitation slasher vibes,...
Balloon | Review
An Air Affair: Herbig Revisits GDR Getaway in Strait-laced Thriller
German director Michael Herbig, best known for his comedic films in his native country, makes...
First Cow | Review
Viva La Vache: Reichardt Paints A Surprising Portrait Of Friendship
Kelly Reichardt conjures up an unlikely buddy-movie out of 19th-century fledging America: a tender, no-frills ode...
Swallow | Review
On Body and Soul: Mirabella-Davis Gets Squeamish with Formidable Debut
As much as it speaks to contemporary understandings of female agency, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ astute directorial...
The Whistlers | Review
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle: Porumboiu Goes Mainstream with Neo-noir
Romanian New Wave alum Corneliu Porumboiu makes a marked departure with his latest...
Saint Frances | Review
Au Pair Affair: Thompson and O’Sullivan Present Warm Debut with Body Positive Dramedy
There’s much to be said for an authentic, well-calibrated scenario, whether or...
Interview: Alex Thompson & Kelly O’Sullivan – Saint Frances
Ostensibly the story of a relationship between a nanny and the 6-yr-old girl she’s looking after, Alex Thompson’s Saint Frances mixes drama and comedy...
DAU. Natasha | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Russia House: Khrzhanovskiy & Oertel Arrive from Russia with Love
As far as the cinematic form has been concerned, there’s been nothing which courts...
Guns Akimbo | Review
We Lost God Control: Howden Gets Loud with Gamer Action Comedy
Video games killed the cinema star could be one of many punchy quips concerning...
The Woman Who Ran | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Rendezvous in Seoul: Sang-soo Gets Spare in Conversational Triptych
Ending a rare year-long absence from the cinema (an observation of note since he presents two...
Her Love is Real, But She is Not: Gainsbourg Plays with Gender Norms in “Je t’aime moi non plus” (1976) Blu-ray Review
An obscure oddity from the late 70s, to be sure, is French pop artist Serge Gainsbourg’s 1976 directorial debut, Je t’aime moi non plus...
When the Walls Can Talk: Forbes’ Forgotten “The Whisperers” Finds New Breath | Blu-ray Review
British director Bryan Forbes is perhaps best remembered for his iconic American horror film The Stepford Wives, which became a genre classic and entered...
Lost in Translation: Lapid Languishes in Enigmatic, Complex Study on Cultural Identities with “Synonyms” | Blu-ray Review
Winning the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival, Nadav Lapid’s third film Synonyms was one of the best theatrical releases of...
Greed | Review
In a Rich Man’s World: Winterbottom Wobbles with Elementary Satire
Perennial British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, who has presented a number of different narratives across...
All the Dead Ones | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Turn and Face the Strange: Caetano & Gotardo Navigate Displacement in Stellar Period Piece
The tagline for George Cukor’s 1939 classic The Women read “It’s...
The Assistant | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Executive Suite: Green Metes Modern Monsters in Narrative Debut
Documentarian Kitty Green (last on hand with her unique memory tapestry Casting JonBenet, 2017) moves into...
Hidden Away | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Painter Man: Diritti Resurrects Famed Italian Artist
Italian director Giorgio Diritti presents his first film in seven years with Hidden Away, a biopic on famed...
One of These Days | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hands of Fate: Gunther Paints Compelling Portrait of Pride and Poverty
German born director Bastian Günther returns to the other side of his dual citizenship...
The Intruder | 2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Sound of My Voice: Meta Delivers Masterful Psychological Identity Horror
Does it come from without or within? ‘It’ being the perception of danger, delusion...
Young Ahmed | Review
Stabbing Backwards: Dardennes “Beet” Misguided Youth into Submission
Up until now, even the most disenfranchised personage in Dardennian cinema had at least a glimmer of...
2020 Berlin Intl. Film Festival: Nicholas Bell’s Top 5 Most Anticipated Films
For its 70th edition, the Berlinale begins a new era by adding some new categories (mainly the newly minted Encounters program, a competition for...
The Night Clerk | Review
Spy Hard: Cristofer Returns with Faulty Noir
It’s been nearly twenty years since Pulitzer Prize winning scribe Michael Cristofer has developed a theatrical feature, last...
Criterion Collection: The Fugitive Kind (1960) | Blu-ray Review
“It’s time to speak of unspoken things,” is the tagline for a forgotten late 1960s Joseph Losey film called Secret Ceremony, an odd psychodrama...
Criterion Blu-ray: Antonio Gaudí (1984) | Video Blu-ray Review
A hypnotic homage serving as part-travelogue, part visionary curation of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi’s (1852-1926) masterworks in Barcelona, Japanese auteur Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1984 documentary...
I’ll Have What She’s Having: DeBoer & Luebbe Craft a Cult Classic with Bizarro “Greener Grass” | Blu-ray Review
Courting comparisons from David Lynch to John Waters, Tim Burton to Mary Harron, Greener Grass, the directorial debut from Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe...
Lars and the Unreal Girls: The Danish Provocateur Pushes Buttons in Cruel, Grotesque “The House That Jack Built” | Blu-ray Review
The most controversial entry in the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Lars Von Trier’s The House That Jack Built finally makes its way to Blu-ray...
Video Interview: Luis López Carrasco – The Year of the Discovery | 2020 Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam
Pervasive use of split screen, a sprawling, relaxed approach to time and a carefully recreated period look - both in costumes and image quality...
2020 Berlinale Exclusive: Poster & Trailer to Francisco Márquez’s A Common Crime (Un crimen común)
An Argentinean born filmmaker who saw his La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis selected for the Un Certain Regard section at 2016 Cannes Film...
Edson Oda’s Nine Days Leads Dylan Dempsey’s Top 10 Films of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival
This year’s Sundance slate was one of the most diverse ever: nearly half of the 128 feature films were directed by women; 34% of...
Interview: Kantemir Balagov – Beanpole
We sat down with director Kantemir Balagov at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival following the premiere of his sophomore film Beanpole in Un Certain...
Beanpole | Review
Life After Wartime: Balagov Crafts Exemplary Portrait of Post-WWII Role of Women
In the words of Plato, “Only the dead have seen the end of...
Incitement | Review
Histories of Violence: Zilberman Revisits the Tempest of Infamous Assassination
Now over twenty years removed from the circumstances which led to the assassination of Israeli...
Come to Daddy | Review
Father of Mine: Timpson Paints Pastiche with Peculiar Debut
While he assembles all the requisite elements for what promises to be a throwback to the...
Criterion Collection: All About My Mother (1999) | Blu-ray Review
Pedro Almodóvar’s most exquisitely dramatic and compassionate film All About My Mother arrived in the final year of the last century, a supercharged queer...
Charter | 2020 Sundance Film Festival Review
The Custody of Love: Kernell Returns with Emotionally Wrought Portrait of a Mother’s Love
Consider the standard, universally familiar (i.e., acceptable) narrative of fathers who...
High Tide | 2020 Sundance Film Festival Review
The Moon in the Gutter: Chen Turns Tables in Taut Character Study
Argentina’s Veronica Chen adds to the annals of violent amour fou with her...
Exil | 2020 Sundance Film Festival Review
Fugee Fugue: Perceptions and Paranoia Make Bitter Bedfellows in Morina’s Drama
For anyone who’s ever experienced the phenomenon of ‘otherness,’ Visar Morina’s terrific sophomore film...
Summer White | 2020 Sundance Film Festival Review
Sons & Lovers: Patterson Explores the Trouble with Sharing the Love in Subdued Debut
The subject of the single mother is a scenario rife for...
The Corrupted | Review
Crime Time: Scalpello Skirts the Underbelly in Generic, Capable Thriller
We’ve reached a point where something like The Corrupted, the latest offering from Britain’s Ron...
Troop Zero | Review
Feeling Like a Number One: Bert & Bertie Get Glossy with Good Intentions
For those who prefer to view the world through rosy-tinted glasses, there’s...
Exclusive: Poster for Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog
As we await the unveiling of the Golden Bear hopefuls, earlier today, the Berlin International Film Festival unveiled the fifteen features that will comprise...
Everything is Blue for Him: Schrader Strikes the Underbelly with Underrated Debut “Blue Collar” | Blu-ray Review
Paul Schrader’s early career is a mix of seminal classics and underappreciated gems. While he began as a screenwriter, penning a thorny trifecta of...
