Tag: top-stories
High Life | Review
An Outpost of Progress: Denis Gets Daring with Esoteric Sci-Fi
Of Claire Denis’ impressive English language debut High Life, perhaps a famous line from Alien...
New Wave Crash Course: Varda’s Final Call to Action
~ In Memoriam ~
Agnès Varda, 1928-2019
In 2017, I had the privilege of spending time with the legendary 88-year old Belgian-born filmmaker Agnès Varda. She was...
Tracking Shot: Ana Lily Amirpour, Chad Hartigan & Sara Colangelo Shooting in April
“Tracking Shot” is a top of month featurette here at IONCINEMA.com that looks at the projects that are moments away from lensing. This April...
Top 3 Critics’ Picks in Theaters this April: High Life, Dogman & Long Day’s Journey Into Night
IONCINEMA.com’s Top 3 Critics’ Picks offers a curated approach to the usual quandary: what would you recommend I see in theaters this month? The...
The Beach Bum | Review
Tales of Ordinary Madness: Korine Courts Cutesy in Outlandish Stoner Comedy
It’s no fun being the designated driver, which is the position the audience of...
Video: Josephine Mackerras’ Alice | 2019 SXSX Film Festival
Josephine Mackerras’ Alice, winner of SXSW 2019’s Best Narrative Feature prize, tells the story of a mild-mannered Parisian woman who becomes a sex worker...
2019 SXSW Film Fest Recap: Us, The Peanut Butter Falcon & Booksmart Lead Dylan Kai Dempsey’s Top 8
SXSW’s 2019 competition was dominated by talented women. Happily, this best-of-fest list contains several of their narrative achievements—plus two highly recommended out-of-competition docs. One...
Criterion Collection: Wanda (1970) | Blu-ray Review
A director and a film unfortunately stymied shortly after its premiere, Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) remains a singularly unwavering portrait of neo-realistic gender identity...
Interview: Caleb Slain – Marshall from Detroit (VR Documentary)
Despite its crumbling infrastructure and economic woes, there is vast nook and cranny beauty and nocturnal serenity to be found in Detroit via Caleb...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s Top Ten Films of All Time List
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? To celebrate the launch of her feature debut...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Sandi Tan’s Top Ten Films of All Time List
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? We look back at the incredible launch year...
Us | Review
Seeing Double: Peele Turns his Camera on Us
In the best possible way, Us feels like a Jordan Peele movie -- his sophomore feature offers...
Exclusive: KimStim Land Minervini’s ‘What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?’
EXCLUSIVE: After receiving a world premiere comp slot at the Venice Film Festival with subsequent major premieres at TIFF, NYFF and Rotterdam, Roberto Minervini's...
Boyz In The Wood | 2019 SXSW Film Festival Review Ninian Doff
Ninian Doff Goes Brogue While Delinquents Go Scot-Free
Scottish music video-director Ninian Doff offers an uneven but hilarious debut with Boyz in the Wood: a bonkers action-comedy...
Interview: Claire Burger – Real Love (C’est ça l’amour) | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
She broke out big as part of a trio of filmmakers with the Camera d'Or winning Party Girl (a film that opened the Un...
Interview: Michel Franco – Las hijas de Abril | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
Having been ardent fan of this filmmaker since being introduced to his minimalist essay on how an assault on the affluent can infuse toxicity...
Interview: Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
Ranked at the top of my best films of 2018 list (still unpublished), with her fourth feature, Lynne Ramsay attained "film godz" status with...
Interview: Daniel Brühl | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
An actor and swiss army knife multi-linguistic for almost three decades now with seminal films in Good Bye Lenin! (2003) and The Edukators (2004)...
Interview: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre – Mustang | 2015 January Screenwriters Lab
Having grown up on film sets and gradually making the move from in front of the camera, to a space where appears to have...
The Mustang | Review
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?: de Clermont-Tonnerre Leads Us to Water with Minimalist Melodrama
Animal love is at the heart of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s directorial...
Knife + Heart | Review
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key Light: Gonzalez’s Queer Giallo a Dicey Mélange
Love as an overwhelming, all-consuming fire...
Ash Is Purest White | Review
Love is Like a Stove: Zhangke Tackles Genre in Time-Spanning Romance
Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke continues to experiment in tone and form with his latest...
3 Faces | Review
Faces, Places: Panahi Provokes the Patriarchy in Quiet Hybrid Drama
Now nearly half way through his twenty-year ban from filmmaking, (a damning sentence passed down...
Amanda | 2019 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Review
Be Kind Unwind: Radiant Performances Buoy Hers Powerful Drama
Unless we’re talking about heist films, preparedness is often a trait lacking in protagonists and when...
Gloria Bell | Review
I Think They Know Her Alias: Lelio Revisits His Breakout Title with English Language Remake
Chilean auteur Sebastian Lelio, who recently took home an Academy...
The Conversation: 2019 Cannes Film Festival Predictions
For several reasons, the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival was something of a slight progression, if at least for the number of...
Woman at War | Review
Female Misbehavior: Erlingsson Explores Ecofeminism in Entertaining Character Portrait
After exploring the defining social elements between humans and their horses in his homegrown debut Of...
Son of a Gun: Colin Farrell Programmed for Kogonada’s ‘After Yang’ with A24
With packaging being put together this past summer, Kogonada sees the A24 folks reteam with actor Colin Farrell on his sophomore feature, After Yang....
Climax | Review
Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough: Noe Does Sensory Deception with Latest Dark Odyssey
Come again? Enfant terrible Gaspar Noe returns to cinema of...
Transit | Review
Those Who Leave: Petzold Collapses Past and Present with Holocaust Redux
Switching things up considerably compared to his previous offerings, German auteur Christian Petzold makes...
Video: Gaspar Noé’s Climax | 2018 Cannes Film Festival
In terms of the narrative, it might be his most minimalist and arguably, this stands as Gaspar Noé's best film to date. In terms of...
Interview: Christian Petzold – Transit
If we think more broadly about the possibilities for narrative cinema in the age of “post-cinema” we can certainly make a case in point...
Eternal Sunshined: Chad Hartigan Infected by ‘Little Fish’
Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winning filmmaker Chad Hartigan flirted with some various projects post Morris from America (2016), and now he is setting up shop...
Mapplethorpe | Review
NY & Leather pants – Timoner Delivers by-the-numbers Biopic of Iconoclastic
With her seventh feature film, Ondi Timoner offers an effervescent biopic of iconic queer photographer. From the...
Greta | Review
She Will Always Beat You: Huppert Get Homicidal in Jordan’s B-Thriller
There’s more than one way to depend on the kindness of strangers, including using...
Criterion Collection: La Vérité (1960) | Blu-ray Review
What is the truth? And can you handle it? Notions of truth, perspective and judgment have long been staples of the courtroom drama, melded...
Interview: Madeleine Sackler – O.G. / It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It
Known for her eye-opening documentaries, Emmy-winning producer/director Madeleine Sackler had not one but two films in 2018’s Tribeca Film Festival: It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t...
Interview: Barbara Cigarroa – El Otro Lado (The Other Side) | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Barbara Cigarroa who brought - El Otro Lado (The...
Interview: Chantel Clark – Wit Gesigte (Pale Faces) | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Chantel Clark who brought Wit Gesigte (Pale Faces) to...
Interview: Adrienne Rush – This Land is Your Land | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Adrienne Rush who brought This Land is Your Land...
Interview: Nehir Tuna – Yurt (Dormitory) | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Nehir Tuna who brought Yurt (Dormitory) to the Sundance...
Interview: Kobi Libii – The American Society of Magical Negroes | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Kobi Libii who brought The American Society of Magical...
Alistair Banks Griffin’s The Wolf Hour | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Once again placing his player(s) through the ringer, Alistair Banks Griffin moves from outdoorsy existentialism and moral quicksand in (2011's Two Gates of Sleep)...
Lucía Garibaldi’s The Sharks | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
We caught wind of Lucía Garibaldi when she wowed San Sebastián industry people winning top prize coin in the Films in Progress 32 Industry...
Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
When life gives you lemons, make a feature film out of it. A union that came about by a mutual appreciation artistic sensibilities, Alma...
2019 Sundance Film Fest Recap: Monos, We Are Little Zombies & Cold Case Hammarskjöld Lead Dylan Kai Dempsey’s Top 10
Almost in direct response to critics’ grumblings—who claimed a lack of any true “hits” at Sundance ‘18—Sundance ’19 delivered a near-perfect batting average. The...
Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Brittany Runs a Marathon | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Rocket boosted out of obscurity with his audience-pleaser (U.S. Dramatic Audience Award Winner) debut, when we shed all the pounds, playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo's...
Patrick Brice’s Corporate Animals | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Working at almost a film per year pace since 2014's Creep, versatile in humor and horror, Corporate Animals is perhaps the best of both...
Criterion Collection: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) | Blu-ray Review
The crown jewel of the New Romanian Cinema was Cristian Mungiu’s controversial abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which took...
Kirill Mikhanovsky’s Give Me Liberty | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Juggling not one, but two current projects (the other being the Sundance Lab supported Coming to You), Kirill Mikhanovsky is at a special crux...
