Tag: World Cinema review
Renoir | Review
Family of Straw: Hayakawa Paints Busy Coming-of-Age Portrait
Going in the opposite direction of her 2022 debut Plan 75, a sci-fi meditation on Japan’s aging...
The Wizard of the Kremlin | Review
The Russians Are Killing the Russians Are Killing: Assayas Bungles Political Espionage
Of the many significant issues severely hobbling The Wizard of the Kremlin, the...
The Birthday Party (Histoires de la nuit) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Bird on a Wire: The Past Haunts the Present in Mysius’ Thriller
For her third feature film, Histoires de la nuit (aka The Birthday Party),...
Coward | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Bent Knee, Limp Wrist: Dhont Explores Love at the Frontline
“We have so much to say and we shall never say it,” is one of...
The Black Ball (La bola negra) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Play’s the Thing: Ambrossi & Calvo Connect the Dots
“Dark love is the love that is never named,” wrote Federico Garcia Lorca in Sonnets...
A Man of His Time (Notre salut) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Lost Illusions: Marre Administers Plodding Portrait of an Opportunist
“There’s nothing worse than being bored with a boring man,” according to French writer Antoine Laurain....
Titanic Ocean | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Deep Sea, Baby: Kotzamani Goes Down Where It’s Wetter
Greek filmmaker Konstantina Kotzamani heads to Japan for her directorial debut, Titanic Ocean, its fanciful title...
Minotaur | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Cranes Aren’t Flying: Zvyagintsev Unleashes Primordial Tendencies
“They always end disastrously,” Kate Burton advises Diane Lane of extramarital affairs in Adrian Lyne’s 2002 erotic...
Her Private Hell | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
What Have They Done to Your Daughters?: Refn Returns with Vacuous Vengeance
After disappearing into television for the past decade, Nicolas Winding Refn once again...
Bitter Christmas (Amarga Navidad) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Women on the Verge of a Creative Breakdown: Almodovar Explores Anxious Inspirations
“All literature is gossip,” quipped Truman Capote, an iconoclast whose predilection for ‘borrowing’...
Fjord | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Uncanny Valley: Mungiu Explores Liberated Prisons
Totalitarian mentality is driven to logical extremes in Fjord, Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu’s first foray outside of his native...
Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Years We Fell Apart: Razo Resurrects the Final Throes of Childhood
For his first narrative feature, documentary filmmaker Bruno Santamaría Razo utilizes a docu-hybrid in...
The Unknown (L’Inconnue) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
She Who Is Not: Harari Explores Existential Identity Issues in the Body Swap
“A woman, for me, must remain a woman,” stated Andrey Tarkovsky when...
Hope | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Monster Squad: Hong-jin Goes Full-Blown Extraterrestrial
For his fourth feature, South Korean director Na Hong-jin goes for breakneck, relentless mayhem in the curiously titled Hope....
Strawberries (La más dulce) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Fruit on the Vine: Marrakchi Harvests Bitter Justice
“We give our bodies. All that for peanuts,” is an anguished remonstrance from the protagonist in Strawberries,...
Another Day (Garance) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Rosé is the Warmest Color: Herry Explores a Liver of No Return
In several ways, Jeanne Herry’s latest socially conscious drama Garance (unfortunately outfitted with...
Moulin | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Elevator the Gallows: Nemes Aims to Exhaust in Homage to the French Resistance
Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic account of the French Resistance, Army of Shadows (1969)...
The Station | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
No Man’s Land: Women Wage Resistance in Ishaq’s Wartime Debut
Yemenis director Sara Ishaq approaches an examination of life during wartime in her native country...
The Beloved (El ser querido) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
What’s Love Got to Do with It?: Sorogoyen Visualizes Dysfunction & Creative Catharsis
Although it’s a familiar trope, an absent father utilizing a complex ruse...
Sheep in the Box | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK: Koreeda Explores Cruise Control with AI
Somehow, despite being set in the ‘not too distant future,’ Hirokzau Kore-eda’s twee...
Forever Your Maternal Animal | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Only Mothers Left Alive: Maurel Funnels Dysfunctional Family Matters
You can't go home again and it’s a disaster to even try, especially as evidenced in...
Flesh and Fuel (Du Fioul dans les artères) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Paradise by the Dashboard Lights: Le Gall Finds Love in a Hopeless Place
A self-described ‘wayward photographer’ influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, French writer/director Pierre Le...
Shana | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Happy-Go-Mucky: Pinell Finds Purpose with a Woman in Transition
“No one ever wanted her forever,” is a partial description of the titular character in Gail...
Gentle Monster | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Children’s Hour: Kreutzer Poses Provocative Dilemmas
The complex trappings of denial are at the heart of Gentle Monster, the latest from Austrian director Marie...
All of a Sudden | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Of Human Bondage: Hamaguchi Highlights Humanity in Quiet Drama
In the midst of what ends up being a transformative month for the principal players in...
Parallel Tales (Histoires parallèles) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Double Life of the Voyeurist: Farhadi Fails with Out of Touch Drama
Initially, it would seem Asghar Farhadi’s decision to present a contemporary world...
Fatherland | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Every Mann for Themselves: Pawlikowski Remains Chilly with Cold War Permafrost
Two iconoclastic German writers are locked in a spiritual duel for relevance at the...
A Woman’s Life (La Vie d’une femme) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Things to Come: Bourgeois-Tacquet Explores an Affair to Remember
Crimes of the heart are afoot once more in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s A Woman’s Life (La Vie d'une...
Nagi Notes | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
Only the Lonely: Fukada Explores Constructions of Identity
Japanese auteur Kôji Fukada often favors narratives wherein tenuous but comfortable rhythms are suddenly upended by a...
Butterfly Jam | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
For a Few Delens More: Balagov Congeals in the Garden State
Kantemir Balagov brings his native Nalchik to New Jersey with his English language debut...
La Vénus électrique (The Electric Kiss) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Liar of Your Desire: Salvadori Sputters with Low Voltage Rom Com
To some, love might indeed mean never having to say you’re sorry, but...
Silent Friend | Review
Allegory of the Tree: Enyedi’s Masterful Meditation on Human Progress
The metaphorical subtexts germinating to fruition through Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend are formidable, even as,...
Eagles of the Republic | Review
One Flew Over the Coup’s Nest: Saleh Muddles Through Propaganda Politics
“Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible....
The Blue Trail (O último azul) | Review
Crimes of the Future: Mascaro Envisions Trouble Ahead
“Getting old ain’t no place for sissies,” a quote often attributed to Bette Davis (or similar variations...
Living the Land | Review
Land of Steady Habits: Meng Reflects Familial Upheaval in Quiet Saga
“Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go...
DJ Ahmet | Review
All DJs, Great and Small: Unkovski’s Debut Can’t Stop the Music
While its location might feel inherently unique, the happenings in Georgi M. Unkovski’s narrative...
YES | Review
Break My Soul: Lapid Explores Compromised Artistry During Wartime
Essentially, YES, the latest film from Israeli auteur Nadav Lapid, is a portrait of an artist...
Kontinental ’25 | Review
Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Jude Skewers the Status Quo
Ownership is an unsaid key word in Kontinental ’25, the latest perambulating spasm from Romanian...
Alpha | Review
Turn to Stone: Ducournau Hits a Wall with Disease Allegory
“Death is the cure for all illness,” wrote English writer Thomas Browne, which is a...
Two Prosecutors | Review
Ordeal by Innocence: Loznitsa Mines the Terrors of Naïveté
A good man is hard to find, and if one were to be found, he’s likely...
The Stranger (L’étranger) | Review
Anatomy of a Mime: Ozon Explores the Seduction of Indifference
Decades before Hannah Arendt introduced her concept of ‘the banality of evil,’ Albert Camus...
What Does that Nature Say to You | Review
The Parent Trap: Sang-soo Takes Sideways Swipe at Social Etiquette
A constant purveyor of how subtle social cues are obliterated by the lowered inhibitions of...
Dreams | Review
Magnificent Obsession: Franco Finds Love is a Hopeless Place
Michel Franco lassos Jessica Chastain into his continued class conflict examinations in Dreams, an intimate portrait...
Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Celestial Orgy: Haroun Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts
Nestled deep down inside the core of Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars is a compelling narrative...
A New Dawn | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Grave of the Fireworks: Shinomiya Finds All the Colors in the Dark
For his debut film, A New Dawn, animator Yoshitoshi Shinomiya marries bureaucratic takeovers,...
Lali | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Ghosts of Past & Present: Sultan Khoosat Hones His Visual Flair But Latest Devolves Into Silliness
A universal thematic thread of the past haunting its...
Roya | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
I Confess: Mohammadi's Myriad of Memory Celebrates Women of Iran Who Don't Stand Idly By
While we understand imprisonment as punishment par excellence, what Iranian...
We Are All Strangers | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Strategy of Tragedy: Chen Overdoses on Drama in Sprawling Family Portrait
The most succinct aspect of Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s latest feature, We Are All...
No Salgas (Don’t Come Out) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
It Doesn’t Follow: Linares Villegas’ Queer Horror Forgets the Fright Factor
Horror has long been a safe space to explore queer stories; from cult classics...
The Loneliest Man in Town | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Perfect Blue: Covi & Frimmel Marinate in Memories
“Everything changing all the time. Even the air you breathing change,” notes a character in August Wilson’s...
