Tag: World Cinema review
Meteors | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Male Friendship Comes Apart In Hubert Charuel’s Assured Sophomore Feature
A meteorite enters Earth’s atmosphere moving up to 72 kilometers per second and (usually) burns...
Sleepless City (Ciudad Sin Sueño) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
A Boy & His Dog: Galoe Sweeps Through Slums in Restrained Debut
Home is where the heart is, but such a sentiment becomes difficult to...
Renoir | 2025 Cannes Film Festival 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...
Des preuves d’amour (Love Letters) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Evidence of Love: Douard’s Debut Reads Between the Lines of Maternal Affections
While it plays like something of a specific time capsule, Alice Douard’s Love...
I Only Rest In The Storm | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
White Impact: Pinho Explores the Ponderous Progress Through Post-Colonial Perceptions
“We never seem to be where we are,” remarks one of the characters in Pedro...
A Useful Ghost | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Ghost in the Machine: Boonbunchachoke Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost
Spirits, in all their various forms, are an abiding fixture in Thai culture and folklore,...
La Danse des Renards (Wild Foxes) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Fox on the Run: Carnoy Explores Bruised Masculinity
Following the incestuous liaison of Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer (2023), Samuel Kircher (son of Irene Jacob) braces...
La petite dernière (The Little Sister) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Lost Daughter: Herzi Passes Up Potency in Standard Adaptation
“My name is Fatima,” is one of the constant refrains utilized in Fatima Daas’ celebrated...
Kika | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Belle de Jour: Mourning Becomes Sex Work in Poukine’s Debut
There’s arguably a slippery slope at work in Alexe Poukine’s narrative debut Kika, a far...
Dossier 137 | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Investigation of Citizens Above Suspicion: Moll Persists with Police Procedural
Dominik Moll reunites with his usual collaborating scribe Gilles Marchand in Dossier 137, their third...
L’Engloutie (The Girl in the Snow) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Snow Way: Hémon Delivers Unwanted Help in the High Alps
A young, idealistic school teacher almost literally chooses her hill to die on in Louise...
Two Prosecutors | 2025 Cannes Film Festival 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...
L’intérêt d’Adam | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
No Bandaid Solutions: Wandel’s Suffocating Drama Explores Collective Collateral Damage
Following her remarkable debut Playground (read review), Belgian auteur Laura Wandel moves from a harrowing...
Enzo | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Call Me By Your Pain: Campillo Gently Guides Cantet’s Swan Song
Laurent Cantet was a filmmaker consistently concerned with humans existing on the margins, those...
Leave One Day (Partir un Jour) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Chef’s Kiss: Bonnin Uses Familiar Recipe in Pleasant Debut
For her directorial debut, Partir un Jour (Leave One Day), based on her own 2021 Cesar...
Love (Kjærlighet) | Review
Ain’t Nothin’ But Sex Misspelled: Haugerud Continues Quiet, Earnest Talking Cure Trilogy
Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud continues his sexuality-themed film trilogy (Sex/Dreams/Love) in Love,...
Sister Midnight | Review
Crazy On You: Kandhari’s Strange Fantasy of Madness
It’s been nearly twenty years since director Karan Kandhari’s 2005 debut Bye Bye Miss Goodnight (since then working on...
The Damned | Review
The Damned Do Cry: Minervini Details a Doomed Mission
For his first narrative feature, Roberto Minervini tackles another aspect of the evolving American identity with The...
Caught by the Tides | Review
The Tide is High: Zhangke Splices Thwarted Romance Across Changing Times
Filmmaker Jia Zhangke presents something of an experimental anomaly with his latest feature, Caught...
Black Tea | Review
Spill the Tea: Sissako Flounders with Tepid Brew
The level of ineptitude apparent in every regard of Black Tea, Abderrahmane Sissako’s first narrative feature in...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
