Tag: World Cinema review
You Won’t Be Alone | Review
Practical Magic: Stolevski Impresses with Eloquent Folk Horror Trauma
Nature and Nurture are the affixed ingredients in a codependent dance swirling under the surface of...
The Girl and the Spider | Review
A Roommate of One’s Own: The Zurcher Bros. Cast a Spell in Weirdo Existential Melodrama
The two central characters of Ramon and Silvan Zurcher’s enchantingly...
Bull | Review
All the Rage: Williams Returns with a (Familiar) Vengeance
After a decade working in television, British director Paul Andrew Williams finally returns to narrative filmmaking...
The Rose Maker (La fine fleur) | Review
In the Name of the Rose: Frot Elevates Formulaic Melodrama from Pinaud
“What is life without beauty?,” inquires antiquated rosarian Eve Vernet in Pierre Pinaud’s...
Sonne | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
The Sun Also Scheisse: Ayub Explores Identity Politics in Modern European Diaspora
For her directorial debut, Sonne, director Kurdwin Ayub draws on her background as...
Zero Fucks Given (Rien à foutre) | Review
Ground Control: Exarchopoulos Takes Flight in Portrait of Repressed Anguish
For their directorial debut Zero Fucks Given, Julie Lecoustre and Emmanuel Marre opt for a...
Nitram | Review
A Pleasure to Burn: Kurzel Explores the Making of a Murderer in Disturbing Portrait
On April 28, 1996, lone gunman Martin Bryant shot and killed...
Infinite Storm | Review
White Woman in a Blizzard: Szumowska Pitts Watts Against the Elements in True Life Trauma Drama
Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska unleashes her tenth narrative feature...
Mothering Sunday | Review
Woman in Love: Husson Mounts Reticent Portrait of Living Life Out Loud
At first glance, Mothering Sunday has all the impeccable furnishings evident in the...
Ahed’s Knee | Review
Kneedful Things: Lapid Highlights Complex Conflicts in Indignant Screech
The entirety of Ahed’s Knee, the fourth film from Israel’s Nadav Lapid, is formatted to aggravate...
Bloody Oranges | Review
Strange Fruit: Meurisse Gets Gonzo with Slice of Cinema Bizarre
Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse follows up his 2016 comedy Apnee with something a bit more uncomfortable...
Great Freedom | Review
Laws of Attraction: Rogowski Shines Bright in Recuperative Queer Prison Drama
Although there’s nary an upside down pink triangle in sight, Austria’s Sebastian Meise cultivates...
Mother Schmuckers | Review
O Brother, Why Art Thou?: The Guit Bros. Get Down & Out in Bizarre Debut
Something is rotten in the state of Belgium, or so...
My Best Part (Garçon chiffon) | Review
Green Eyes, They’re Crying: Maury Mines Sorrow in Tragicomic Debut
Actor Nicolas Maury crafts his own starring vehicle in My Best Part (Garçon chiffon) as...
Servants | Review
A Separate Peace: Ostrochovský Crafts a Church Noir for Sophomore Feature
For his sophomore narrative feature, Slovak director Ivan Ostrochovský recuperates a uniquely chilling scenario...
Happiness (Baqyt) | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Let the Sunshine In: Uzabayev Drags Us Through the Wretched Realities of Violence Against Women
The knee-jerk response to the agonizing experience of watching a...
À propos de Joan (About Joan) | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Ladies They Talk About: Larivière Utilizes Huppert in Shaky Melodrama on Loss & Love
For his sophomore film À propos de Joan (About Joan), Laurent...
A Piece of Sky (Drii Winter) | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Poor Cow: Koch Devises Solemn Melodrama of a Tortured Romance
Delivering a steady handed narrative as full of sincerity as it is austerity, Swiss director...
AEIOU – A Quick Alphabet of Love | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
The Consonants of Love: Krebitz Gets Caught in an Odd Romance
“It all begins with A,” so begins the omniscient third-person narration of Anna, an...
La ligne | Review
Fists Out of Pocket: Meier Mines Superficial Dysfunction with Uneven Comic Melodrama
Although she’s been working on a variety of documentary and short projects, not...
Incredible But True | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Beauty Secrets: Dupieux Latest a Strangely Tragic Fable on Human Foibles
The films of Quentin Dupieux, a prolific Belgian director who has spent most of...
Minamata | Review
Man with a Movie Camera: Levitas Aims for Noble Rendering of Horrific Toxic Waste Contamination
You’ve heard it before---corporate greed and government corruption colluding to...
Playground | Review
Suffer the Children: Wandel Explores Bullying Through a Child’s Perspective in Superb Debut
If everything one needs to know is learned in kindergarten, part of...
Ballad of a White Cow | Review
Kismet Kisses: Moghaddam & Sanaeeha Mine Intimate Vengeance in Rich Melodrama
The opening moments of Ballad of a White Cow evokes a quote from Al-Baqarah...
Fabian – Going to the Dogs | Review
The Dog Days Aren’t Over: Graf Puts a New Coat of Paint on the Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, aka the German Republic, which lasted...
Air Doll | Review
There is No Substitute: Kore-eda Digs into Our Rubber Soul with Fantasy Flick
Reinterpreting the notion of what it is to truly be living and...breathing,...
The Last Ride of the Wolves | 2022 Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Fasten your Seatbelt: De Michele Embarks on a Bumpy First Ride
A thematic continuation of Alberto de Micheleʼs last short film, The Wolves (2011), for...
The Worst Person In The World | Review
Sometimes She Loved Them Too: Trier Formulates Winning Composite of Love and Self Discovery
For his fifth film, The Worst Person in the World, Norway’s...
Sundown | Review
Slaughter House Rules: Franco Continues with Cinema of Distress
The English playwright Robert Bolt wrote “Death comes for us all. Even for kings he comes.”...
Rifkin’s Festival | Review
Spain & Glory: Allen Apes His Darlings in Familiar Comedy of Marital Discord
The first entry of Woody Allen’s European banishment in the twilight years...
The Pink Cloud | Review
Endemic Pandemic: Gerbase Unveils Prophetic Debut of Life During Lockdown
The uncanny prescience of Iuli Gerbase’s directorial debut The Pink Cloud is as stunning as...
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? | Review
Eye See You: Koberidze Spins a Modern Fairy Tale of Distracted Perceptions
Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze ascends to a sublime arthouse stature with his curious...
Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas) | Review
The Lives of Mothers: Almodovar’s Melodrama Mines the Personal and Political
Coincidences abound in Parallel Mothers, the latest soap dish from Spain’s perennial auteur, Pedro...
France | Review
France de France: Dumont Soars with Offbeat Melodrama on Media & Misogyny
Few and far between are odd cinematic delights so deliberately off-center and...
Wolf [Video Review]
Oddly aggressive therapy tactics are the antagonist forces in a coming-of-ager drama that looks at a particular mental health disorder that is steeped in...
Red Rocket | Review
Nude Illusion: Baker Returns to Sex Work in Bristling Character Study
You can’t go home again, especially when no one missed you in the first...
Benedetta | Review
Blaspheme, Queen: Verhoeven Turns to Nunsploitation in Erotic Melodrama
Occupying a dazzling intersection of exploitation and queer historical recuperation is the long-awaited Benedetta from Dutch...
The Hand Of God | Review
Idle Hands: Sorrentino’s Sprawling Saga a Wayward Bildungsroman
There’s almost as much to admire as there is to dismiss in The Hand of God, Paolo...
Drive My Car | Review
Lamprey Love: The Play’s the Thing in Hamaguchi’s Brooding Saga of Regrets
“When one has no real life, one lives on illusions,” is one of...
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn | Review
Stand & Deliver: Jude Doubles Up on the Viral in Kangaroo Court
Leave it to Radu Jude to take a sad song and make it...
Spencer | Review
In the Name of the Rose: Larrain Crafts Empathetic Portrait of an Icon in Anguish
The eternal impact of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose...
Sisters | Review
O Brother, Where Art Thou?: Benguigui Explores Fractured Cultural Identities in Meta Drama
It’s been two decades since French-Algerian filmmaker Yamina Benguigui released her exceptional...
Last Night in Soho | Review
Profondo Glosso: Wright Falters with Glossy, Pseudo-Feminist Ghost Story
Opening upon joyful musical reverie and descending into vibrant color palettes, Edgar Wright’s attempt at...
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain | Review
Wain’s World: Sharpe Presents Loving Portrait of an Artist
It’s odd to reflect upon a time when felines weren’t regarded as a stereotypical domesticated fur...
The French Dispatch | Review
Repetition Commission: Anderson Flatlines with Twee Aesthetic
Since cinema requires a semblance of participation by the audience, a passive relationship of sorts, the latest curio...
Anatomia | 2021 Warsaw International Film Festival Review
Anatomy of a Memory: Jankowska Dissects the Poetics of Belonging Nowhere
Part of the what could be coined as a niche genre of ‘melancholic European...
Meeting Point | 2021 Warsaw International Film Festival Review
Nighttime is the Right Time: two unlikely companions navigate a liminal Istanbul in Evirgen’s one-night odyssey
Sometime in the early naughts, a certain type of...
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy | Review
Flesh+Fantasy: Hamaguchi Harvests Regrets in Eloquent Triptych
One of Japan’s most compelling and profound contemporary auteurs is Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a purveyor of the barely contained...
I Am Fine, Thanks | 2021 Warsaw International Film Festival Review
Love, Deliver Us From Evil: Jankauskas Undercooks His Fiery Dive into Destructive Perfectionism
A flock of particularly belligerent rubber ducks floats toward Maria (Gabija Siurbytė),...
Fever Dream | Review
Threadlock: Llosa Drifts into Elegant Nightmare with Faithful Adaptation
For her fourth feature, Peruvian director Claudia Llosa adapts Samanta Shweblin’s enigmatic novel Fever Dream, a...
