Tag: World Cinema review
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...
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...
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...
The Room Next Door | Review
Triumph of the Will: Almodovar’s Muy Excelente English Debut
“Women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems,” wrote Virginia Woolf in...
Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo | 2024 Red Sea Intl. Film Festival Review
First Blood: Khaled Mansour’s Debut Follows A Man Ready To Fight For The Fate Of His Dog
In First Blood, John Rambo is a quiet...
The Order | Review
The True Story of a Racist Gang: Kurzel Explores Formative Chapter of American Domestic Terrorism
There’s a brooding, sinister quality to Justin Kurzel’s filmmaking, whose...
The Girl with the Needle | Review
Casa de los Babys: von Horn Hits a Bleak Streak
You know you’re in for something dark and dreary when a film opens upon a...
Power Alley (Levante) | Review
That Time of the Month: Halla Offers Ringside Seats to the Courts - Both On and Off
In one’s timeline, it’s the pre-adulthood teenage years...
The Seed of the Sacred Fig | Review
Way of the Gun: Rasoulof’s Bold, Blunt Indictment of Iranian Regime
There’s been little opportunity for artists to clearly or critically speak truth to power...
Queer | Review
(Disem)Body Talk: Guadagnino Pays Homage to the Paradoxical Beat Pariah
If Ayn Rand had dared to write a character who was a genius gay white...
Maria | Review
Songs from the Specious Floor: Larrain Imagines the Last Days of a Diva
A penny for the thoughts of Maria Callas regarding Pablo Larraín’s glossy...
All We Imagine as Light | Review
The Big City: Kapadia Designs Lovely Portrait of Friendship and Free Will
Mumbai is a city of illusions, a character remarks in Payal Kapadia’s debut...
The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad) | Review
Agnes of God: Franz & Fiala’s Bleak Portrait of Women & Madness
“A Witch is born out of the true hungers of her time,” wrote...
Bird | Review
Dole Days: Arnold Flutters About with Strange Bedfellows
There’s certainly a definable emotional core in Andrea Arnold’s fifth narrative feature, Bird, but the ideas and...
Small Things like These | Review
All the Small Things: Mielants Mines the Evils of Complicity
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do...
Emilia Pérez | Review
Risky Business: Audiard Surprises with Vibrant Genre Musical
Although it’s assembled from unlikely, even questionable sources, Jacques Audiard’s latest feature, Emilia Pérez, a genre...
The Apprentice | Review
The Devil and Donald Trump: Abbasi Reconstructs the Rise of a Crony Capitalist
Among the many wise observations written by nineteenth century Englishman Lord Acton,...
Daaaaaali! | Review
Good Golly, It’s Dali: Dupieux Dreams Surreal in Distinctive Biopic
It seems surrealism’s pioneer Salvador Dali is experiencing something of a culturally concentric resurgence as...
The Universal Theory (Die Theorie Von Allem) | Review
Multiverse of Sadness: Kroger Captivates with Cryptic Cold War Sci-Fi Exploit
Although it will invariably be confused with the 2014 Stephen Hawking biopic, Timm Kröger’s...
Matt and Mara | Review
Friends Forever: Radwanski Reteams With Deragh Campbell For Another Captivating Character Study In Close-Up
The tension between a friendship that’s too close for comfort and...
Hard Truths | 2024 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Take A Chance On Love: Mike Leigh Delivers A Late Career Powerhouse
You can’t help but wonder if Mike Leigh is making a sly joke...
Hoard | Review
M is for the Many Things You Gave Me: Grief Becomes the Remedy in Carmoon’s Debut
“Time heals all old pain, while it creates new...
Sicilian Letters (Iddu) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Letters to Daddy: Grassadonia & Piazza Continue Their Cosa Nostra Sagas
Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza reimagine the circumstances surrounding yet another mafioso...
Diva Futura | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Erotic Stagnancy: Steigerwalt’s Depthless Approach of a Italian Porn Heyday
There’s a formidably compelling subject matter at the heart of Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s sophomore film...
The Quiet Son (Jouer avec le feu) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Father Knows Best: The Coulin Sisters Examine the Detrimental Ripples of Fascism
With their third feature, The Quiet Son, French directing duo Delphine and Muriel...
Campo di Battaglia (Battlefield) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Down with the Sickness: Amelio Probes Wartime Ethical Dilemmas
The tagline for Battlefield, the latest from Italian auteur Gianni Amelio, could very well read “You...
And Their Children After Them | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Teenage Wasteland: Boukherma Bros. Sprawl with Coming-of-Age Melodrama
French directing twins Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma swing hard with their fourth feature, And Their Children After...
Three Friends (Trois amies) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Lyon Lies Bleeding: Mouret Explores L’amour Fou (Encore)
Even for those unfamiliar with the filmography of Emmanuel Mouret, his latest film, Three Friends will unequivocally...
Quiet Life | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Do You Know Where You’re Going To?: Avranas Analyzes Syndrome of a New Century
For his fifth narrative feature, Quiet Life, Greek Weird Wave alum...
Planète B | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Say My Name Say My Name: Rapin Conquers Hearts, Minds and VR HeadSets in Wonky Digital Dystopia Piece
After exploring themes of rebirth and reincarnation...
The Life Apart | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
Imitation of Life: Giordana Composes an Old-Fashioned Miracle
Music seems to be the language of the heart in The Life Apart (La vita accanto), a bizarre...
New Dawn Fades | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
Through a Glass Darkly: Keltek Finds Divinity Through Insanity
Sanism might be the term best used to define the trials and travails faced by the...
Toxic (Akiplėša) | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Taste of a Poison Paradise: Bliuvaite Explores the Commodification of Women’s Bodies
Lithuanian filmmaker Saulė Bliuvaitė perhaps could not have contrived a more succinct...
Cent mille milliards | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Unhappy Hooker: Vernier Explores Ennui in Monaco
Interconnected drifters aligned with sex work once again provide the backbone for Virgil Vernier’s third feature 100,000,000,000,000...
Agora | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Dead Don’t Die: Slim Sets Adrift in Tedious Metaphors
For his third feature film, Agora, Tunisian director Ala Eddine Slim continues in the realm...
Moon | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
Bitter Moon: Ayub Concocts a Taut Domestic Thriller
“It takes time for a bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its...
Fogo do Vento (Fire of Wind) | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Wind Carries On: Mateus Crafts Political Fable Fusing Past & Present
In her debut film, Fogo do Vento (Fire of Wind), which finds a...
Weightless | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Big Empty: Fgaier Crash Lands with Sentimental Drivel
For her directorial debut Weightless (Sulla terra leggeri), film editor Sara Fgaier opens her narrative with a...
Transamazonia | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
Smite Material: Marais Unearths Jungle Cliches
It’s been over a decade since South African director Pia Marais’ last feature, and she’s spent six years working...
Salve Maria | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Good Mother: Coll Examines Motherhood as Psychological Trauma
Seeing as director Mar Coll punctuates her third feature Salve Maria with chapters utilizing quotes from...
Mexico 86 | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
Coup de Madre: Díaz Revisits Violent Turmoils with Intimate Familial Drama
Director César Díaz continues his cinematic exploration of Guatemala’s brutal civil war, considered the...
Death Will Come (La Mort viendra) | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
And Bear Your Eyes: Hochhäusler’s Grim Sketch of a Tangled Underworld
Death, it seems, does not quite become Christoph Hochhäusler, the Berlin School alum making...
The Nature of Love | Review
Heart in the Right Place: Chokri Lets the Body & the Camera Do the Talking in Rom Dramedy
French Canadian filmmaker Monia Chokri adds another...
