Tag: World Cinema review
La cocina | Review
Soap Kitchen: Ruizpalacios Underwhelms & Over Bakes Food Drama
Making his English language debut with fourth feature La Cocina, based on the notable stage play...
Bonjour Tristesse | Review
Lifestyles of the Rich, Conflicted & Coddled: Dull Vacation in the South of France for Debut
Ah, summer in the south of France. The cerulean...
Most People Die on Sundays | Review
A Month of Sundays: Said Squeezes Magic Out of Melancholy
The tagline for Iair Said’s sophomore film More People Die on Sundays (Los domingos mueren...
The Scary House | 2025 Udine Far East Film Festival Review
Watanabe Smarter Than Ghosts, but The Scary House Had Other Plans
Venturing into the horror genre for the first time, Japanese indie filmmaker Watanabe Hirobumi’s...
April | Review
A Vindicated Woman: Kulumbegashvili Constructs Potent, Profound Study in Body Horror
I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves,”...
The Shrouds | Review
Death Be Not Shroud: Cronenberg Hits Dead Ends in Sluggish Mystery
The burial business serves as the battle ground for a complicated conundrum in David...
A Traveler’s Needs | Review
The Traveler Has Come: Huppert Shines in Latest Collaboration with Sang-soo
There are few directors who seem to rightly channel the comic side of Isabelle...
Grand Tour | Review
Runaway Groom: Gomes Charts a Barren Odyssey
In what serves as an extremely taxing personification of cold feet, Miguel Gomes feels as if he’s...
Holy Cow | Review
Smells Like Entrepreneurial Spirit!: Courvoisier Climbs Up the Totone Poll
In her directorial debut, Louise Courvoisier delves into themes of altruism and resilience, navigating a...
Being Maria | Review
Forever Noor: Palud’s Schneider Moves From Being a Passenger to Just Saying Non
Since the advent of cinema, it’s been standard operating procedure for the...
The Assessment | Review
The Parent Trap: Elizabeth Olsen Tries Not to Break In Fleur Fortuné’s Debut The Assessment
The one thing you can count as the world gets...
Honey Bunch | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love Like This Before: Sims-Fewer & Mancinelli Examine the Ethics of Love
Canadian filmmaking duo Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli follow up their disturbing 2020...
Who by Fire (Comme le feu) | Review
Into the Woods: Lesage Explores Wounded Masculinities
In Vincent Sherman’s 1943 Bette Davis-led melodrama Old Acquaintance, the complex relationship between a pair of female frenemies...
An Unfinished Film | Review
The Act of Watching: Lou Ye Mixes Picture Lock Dreams & Lock Down Nightmares
Does a film exist if it was never completed? It’s a...
The Empire (L’Empire) | Review
The Satire Strikes Back: Dumont Claims His Own Multi-Verse
It’s sometimes difficult to predict what mode French auteur Bruno Dumont will be choosing for his...
World War III | Review
War & Fleece: Seyyedi’s Swiftly Shifting Satire Explores the Corrupting Nature of Power
In one of the most unromanticized depictions of the filmmaking process, Iranian...
Reflection in a Dead Diamond | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Feed My Fetish, Please: Cattet & Forzani Pay Homage to the Eurospy in Dazzling Pastiche
Whether giallo gore or Western shaped, their films don’t lose...
What Does that Nature Say to You | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival 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...
La cache (The Safe House) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
May Days: Baier’s Broad Commentary on a Revolutionary Footnote
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people,” said Eleanor Roosevelt. Dipping...
Kontinental ’25 | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival 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...
Yunan | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Nothing is Everything: Eldin’s Continuing Exploration of Existential Crisis
For his sophomore film Yunan, intended as the second chapter in a thematic trilogy following 2021’s...
Dreams (Sex Love) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love on the Brain: Haugerud Caps Trilogy with Teenage Wasteland
With his latest film Dreams (Sex Love) (aka Drømmer), the final installment in his thematic...
Mother’s Baby | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby: Moder Repeats Motherhood Horrors
A palpable, instinctual fascination with the potential horrors of pregnancy are exactly why neonatal dread...
The Message (El mensaje) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Gates of Heaven: Fund Explores Creature Comforts from Beyond
“We are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we...
What Marielle Knows | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Best Little Secrets Are Kept: Hambalek’s Absurdly Skewers the Virtues of Honesty
Honesty may indeed be the best policy and maybe the truth might...
On vous croit (We believe you) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
High Tension: Deville & Dufeys Suffer the Children in Jittery Debut
Tossing us right into the hellfire of an acutely agonizing situation, Charlotte Deville and...
Girls on Wire | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Mad Bills to Pay: Qu Stages Miserabilist Soap Opera
If Girls on Wire settles on anything clear to say it’s quite simply that crime doesn’t...
The Ice Tower (La Tour de Glace) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hearts of Glass: Hadžihalilović Casts a Wintry Spell
A chilly scene of winter unfolds in La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) at a glacial...
The Blue Trail (O último azul) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival 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...
Dreams | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival 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...
Hysteria | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Burn After Filming: Büyükatalay Explores Colliding Perspectives in Nuanced Drama
While it can’t be described as a classic thriller, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s sophomore film Hysteria...
Ari | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Murmur of the Heart: Serraille Conquers Indifference Through Sincerity
With her third feature, Ari, director Léonor Serraille confirms a clear pattern of interest in exploring...
The Best Mother in the World (A melhor mãe do mundo) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Life is Beautiful: Muylaert Takes Aim at Domestic Abuse in Heartfelt Drama
In A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World), the...
Hot Milk | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Eternal Daughter: Lenkiewicz Ladles the Milk of Sorrows
Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz makes her directorial debut with Hot Milk, an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s comically...
Little Trouble Girls | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Circles of Perfection: Djukić Surveys the Compromises of Sexual Awakening
Taking its title from the 1995 Sonic Youth track Little Trouble Girls (Kaj ti je...
Living the Land | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival 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...
Home Sweet Home | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Sofie, Homemaker: Petersen Banks on Undervalued Emotional Labor
Danish director Frelle Petersen’s latest title Home Sweet Home (Hjem kaere hjem) aims to showcase the significant...
Parthenope | Review
The Boring & Beautiful: Sorrentino’s Tone Deaf Portrait of a Lady
It’s unfortunate no one’s as likely to be infatuated with the eponymous Parthenope (pronounced...
Bring Them Down | Review
Everybody Hurts: All Pain and No Gain in Christopher Andrews’ Debut Bring Them Down
If misery loves company, then Bring Them Down is a party....
Marcello Mio | Review
In the Name of the Father: Honore Pays Homage via Identity Crisis
“I only exist when I am working on a film,” Marcello Mastroianni...
Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
Ripe Fruits: Kanawade Taps the Bittersweet Rind of Going Home Again
While there’s been an uptick in contemporary LGBTQ+ films from India over the past...
Sauna | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
Love Me If You Dare: Broe Explores Love in a Hopeless Place
Harlan Ellison’s publication Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled might be a more...
DJ Ahmet | 2025 Sundance Film Festival 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...
The Things You Kill | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
A Poison Tree: Khatami Deconstructs the Psychoses of Patriarchy
For his third feature, Iranian American director Alireza Khatami formulates a powerful psychodrama unspooling through the...
I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) | Review
Still Missing: Salles Returns with Survivors of the Dictatorship
“The dictatorship’s mistakes was to torture but not kill,” former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro proudly claimed...
Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) | Review
Nora El Hourch’s Fiery Sisterhood is La Haine for the #MeToo Generation
Arriving like a molotov cocktail thrown through a plate glass window — or...
Eat the Night | Review
The Sway of the Sword: Reality Bytes in Poggi/Vinel's Bleak Online/Offline Portrait
Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's sophomore feature outing pulses with the heartbeat of...
Pepe | Review
Cocaine Hippo: de Los Santos Arias Explores an Assassination
To say Pepe, the second narrative feature from Dominican director Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias,...
Vermiglio | Review
Baby Machines: Delpero Designs Tapestry of Women’s Miseries During WWII Italy
Despite the associations suggested by its title, Maura Delpero’s sophomore film Vermiglio is a...
The Brutalist | Review
The Safety of Objectivism: Corbet Unleashes the Survival Instinct of Rational Egoism
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided...
