Tag: World Cinema review
My Tender Matador | Review
Pray Away the Pinochet: Sepulveda Cruises Castro with Striking Adaptation
While there’s a bounty of burgeoning directors who have grown out of the New Chilean...
The Retreat [Video Review]
The Hateful Straights: Mills Finds Bigots in the Backwoods in Exploitation Effort
One of the many silver linings of genre filmmaking is the powerful...
Spring Blossom (Seize printemps) | Review
The Flower of Her Secret: Lindon Conquers a Crush in Directorial Debut
Exemplifying the sincere transitional period Britney Spears famously moaned about when she sang...
New Order | Review
How Does It Feel, To Treat Me Like You Do?: Franco Flies Into Traumas of Totalitarianism
It’s a sign of the times, wherein an apocalyptic...
Riders of Justice [Video Review]
Chances Are: Jensen Gets Improbable in Violent Soap Opera
Denmark’s Anders Thomas Jensen brings his offbeat skills at scripted ensembles to his fifth feature as...
About Endlessness [Video Review]
Beauty & Banality: Andersson Ponders the Void in Potential Final Film
There might be no greater spiritual absurdist than Sweden’s premiere arthouse auteur Roy Andersson,...
Cliff Walkers | Review
A Cliff Too Far: Yimou Navigates Tortured Times in Period Espionage Thriller
Arguably the most successful and prolific of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers,...
Limbo | Review
Immigrant Song: The Personal is Political in Sharrock’s Quietly Sincere Portrait of Asylum Seeker
The plight of the political asylum seeker is a complex situation...
Hope | Review
M is for Metastasis: Sødahl Returns with Emotional Portrait of Terminal Illness
Portraits of terminal illness have created a cinematic subgenre staple unto itself, and...
Monday [Video Review]
Wish It Were Sunday: Papadimitropoulos Peddles Bad Romance in Ex-Pat Whirligig
Toxic relationships and fair-weather romances are abundantly attenuated in the cinematic realm, the various...
The Banishing | Review
The Vicar Man: Smith Returns to Period with Bustling Slow Burn
If you’re familiar with the filmography of British filmmaker Christopher Smith, you know you’re...
Moffie [Video Review]
Call Me by Your Shame: Hermanus Mines Historical Trauma in Coming-of-Age Drama
It’s difficult to reconcile the messiness of the past with potential issues of...
In the Earth | Review
Middling Earth: Wheatley Explores Favored Motifs in Pensive Pandemic Exercise
If we’ve gleaned anything about circumventing Mother Nature, perhaps those 1970s Chiffon margarine commercials featuring...
The Power | Review
Night Nurse: Faith Finds the Night the Lights Went Out on the Patriarchy in Moody Debt
Director Corinna Faith makes fine use of period and...
The Salt of Tears | Review
Love Means Never Having to Say: Garrel Continues Exploration of Love and Lust
“Love ain’t nothin’ but sex misspelled,” Harlon Ellison astutely wrote, for too...
Violation [Video Review]
Crime & Punishment: Sims-Fewer & Mancinelli Serve a Cold Dish
Neither redemption nor revenge are at the complete behest of the individual, at least not...
Enforcement [Video Review]
Cop(s) Out: Hviid & Olholm Provide Neutral Portrait Prizing Familiar Perspectives
Cinema can certainly successfully exist as both a statement and a sentiment, and...
Slaxx [Video Review]
You Fit Me Better Than My Favorite Sweater: Kephart Gets Hemmed in by Killer Jeans
Who doesn’t like a pair of perfectly fitted blue jeans?...
The Courier [Video Review]
You’ve Got Mail: Cooke Leaves the Cold War on Ice in Sluggish Spy Thriller
Director Dominic Cooke, revered for his stage work before commencing on...
Come True [Video Review]
The Science of Sleep: Burns Roars into Your REM Cycle with Broody Thriller
“To sleep, perchance to scream” might be a takeaway impression from Come...
Albatros (Drift Away) | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Bye Bye Birdie: Beauvois Bears Burdens in Old-Fashioned Melodrama
The albatross, a large white seabird with a significant wingspan, has been a symbol of a...
Petite Maman | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Going Home Again: Sciamma Delivers a Slight, Eloquent Slice of Novel Sci-fi
Céline Sciamma has built a formidable filmography on tenuous stages of women’s developmental...
Quo Vadis, Aïda? | Review
And Who Shall Be Able to Stand?: Žbanić Returns to Srebrenica in Harrowing Account of Bosniak Genocide
If cinema has any responsibility as an artform,...
My Salinger Year | Review
Raise High the Roofbeams, Cinema: Falardeau’s Warm Homage Clangs Carpe Diem
“I think that one of these days…you’re going to find out where you want...
Next Door | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Neighbor Labor: Brühl Gruels Through Interesting Scenario, Banal Characters in Debut
Gentrification is supposedly the thrust of Next Door, Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut which showcases...
Introduction | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Prelude Mood: Sangsoo Explores Familiar Themes with Droll Snippets
What might one make of Hong Sang-soo if Introduction was their first experience with the perennial...
I’m Your Man | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
The Girl and the Robot: Schrader Wows with Exceptional Exploration of Love, or Something Like It
Harlan Ellison memorably titled a collection of short stories,...
Natural Light | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
In the Fog: No Light at the End of the War Tunnel in Nagy’s Grim Debut
Following in the well-grooved footsteps of many notable Euro...
Memory Box | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Analogue Chronicles: The Past is Present in the Latest Memory Exercise from Hadjithomas & Joreige
A veritable remembrance of things past catalyzes the semi-autobiographical narrative...
Night of the Kings | Review
The Grift of Gab: Lacote Walks the Line of Escapism vs. Survival in Magical Sophomore Film
“You look like someone who should be condemned,” remarks...
The Father | Review
Bend It Like Beckett: Zellers Adapts His Masterful Play into Exploratory Film
In Paradise Lost, John Milton remarked “The mind is its own place, and...
Sin | Review
A Judgment in Stone: Konchalovsky Mines Michelangelo in Period Portrait
The mental state, rather than the persona of Michelangelo Buonarroti as he struggled to satisfy...
I Care A Lot | Review
Battle of the Bilk: Blakeson Returns with Topical Con Comedy
“There’s no such thing as good people,” croons the dulcet Rosamund Pike over the opening...
Jumbo | Review
Do Introverts Dream of Electric Carousels?: Wittock Waxes Fatuous in Debut
A finely wrought tradition of European cinema includes a bounty of infamous depictions of...
The North Wind | 2021 IFFR Review
Go for Baroque: Litvinova Invokes Her Muses in a Delicious Feast of Opulent Visuals
“Nobody loves anybody and no one is happy,” remarks the matriarchal...
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet | 2021 Sundance Film Festival Review
If We Shadows Have Offended: Katz Gives the Dogs Their Day in Curious Metaphorical Journey
Perhaps it will be difficult for some to makes heads...
Knocking | 2021 Sundance Film Festival Review
Only This and Nothing More: Kempff Explores Cultural Gaslighting in Parochial Thriller
As in the timeless singsong of Poe’s classic poem “The Raven,” ‘suddenly there...
Beginning | Review
Carpet Burn: Kulumbegashvili Unnerves with Exacting Debut of Violence and Veneration
For decades, the international presence of Georgian cinema was thanks (mostly) to the output...
True Mothers | Review
Mother Has Arrived: Kawase Returns with Intersecting Drama on Motherhood
Recently, Naomi Kawase, a staple amongst arthouse enthusiasts of Japanese cinema, has been drifting ever...
Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time | Review
Lover Come Back: Horvat Forges Queasy Love Connection with Projections and Perceptions
For her sophomore narrative feature, the intoxicatingly titled Preparations to Be Together for...
Hunted [Video Review]
Once Upon a Time in Belgium: Paronnaud Goes into the Woods for Violent Retro-Fairytale
The notion of the wolf in sheep’s clothing busts into blurred...
The Dig [Video Review]
Sutton Hoo! Sutton Hay!: Stone Goes Deep in Recuperation of Notable Excavation
Director Simon Stone returns to a particular place during a particular period in...
Shadow in the Cloud | Review
A Face in the Cloud: Liang Cruises on Kooky with WWII Sci-Fi
There’s something to be said for a bonkers mishmash of genre tones and...
Dear Comrades! | Review
24-Hour Party People: Konchalovsky Examines Propaganda and Protests in Reenactment of Infamous Massacre
Sporting one of the most fascinating filmographies of any Russian (or any...
Hunter Hunter [Video Review]
Sheep Thrills: Linden Gets Under Your Skin with Slow Burn Thriller
Canada’s Shawn Linden certainly leaves a lasting impression with his third outing, Hunter Hunter,...
Wild Mountain Thyme [Video Review]
Birds & Bees: Shanley Returns with Shopworn Romance
Director John Patrick Shanley returns with his third feature Wild Mountain Thyme, based on his own 2014...
The Weasels’ Tale [Video Review]
Pop Goes the Remake: Campanella Returns with Ghoulish Remake of Black Comedy
In the 2000s, the New Argentine Cinema gained international prominence thanks to a...
Education | Review
School of Crock: McQueen Turns His Eyes to the Stars in Final Anthology Installment
Across five films spanning a period of 1969 to 1982, Steve...
Luxor | Review
Hotel Spell: Durra Explores the Tenuousness of the Present Through Romance of the Past
She hasn’t quite lost that loving feeling, which seems to be...
Another Round | Review
The Libation Bearers: Vinterberg Explores a Collective Mid-life Crisis in Boozy Black Comedy
Thomas Vinterberg returns to his favored motifs, experimental behavioral portraits of Danish...
