Tag: World Cinema review
La Chimera | Review
The Passionate Thief: Rohrwacher Finds Treasures Under the Tuscan Sun
“The sun is following us,” whispers a willowy blonde in the enigmatic opening moments...
DogMan | Review
All Dogs Go to Heaven: Besson Gets Bombastic with Retro Pulp
The suspension of disbelief required to enjoyably settle into Luc Besson’s latest film, DogMan,...
Asphalt City | Review
Angel Heart: Sauvaire Serves Savior Complex in EMS Thriller
“It’s easier with wings than without,” was the tagline for Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of...
Limbo | Review
Desert Fury: Sen Gets Bleak in the Heat of a Cold Case Mystery
Despite it being the title of innumerable films from around the world,...
The Shadowless Tower | Review
The Polite Stuff: Lu Searches for Redemption Through the Walking & Talking Cure
In the strangely alluring The Shadowless Tower, (Bai Ta Zhi Guang)...
Club Zero | Review
The Prime of Miss Jean Foodie: Hausner Satirizes Cult Behavior Through Caloric Deficit
Expanding on the genre sentiments which guided her past titles Hotel (2004)...
Silver Haze | Review
Keeper of the Flame: Polak Reckons with Reconciliation vs. Retribution in Conventional Drama
Dutch director Sacha Polak continues to explore the difficulties of acceptance and...
Shambhala | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Defending Your Life: Bham’s Captivating Quest Follows Its Own Path
The journey is the destination in Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bam’s graceful sophomore film,...
About Dry Grasses | Review
To Sir, With Ego: Ceylan Waltzes with Narcissism in Captivating Character Study
The filmography of Nuri Bilge Ceylan is characterized by complex examinations of human...
Io Capitano | Review
Journey to Italy: Garrone Details Arduous Migrant Odyssey
It might be a rite of passage for contemporary Italian auteurs to examine the grueling adversity faced...
Sons (Vogter) | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Poison Tree: Moller Employs Wrathful Mother in Jailhouse Revenge Drama
“A man that studied revenge keeps his own wounds green,” comes to mind in...
The Great Yawn of History | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Rasti Hunts for Spiritual Treasures
There have been countless films about the quest for fortune and glory, but you’ll be hard-pressed...
Who Do I Belong To | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Return of the Soldier: Joobeur Explores Ghosts of War
Matriarchs confronted by their radicalized children have slowly and painstaking formed a cinematic subgenre of...
Gloria! | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Music of the Heart: Vicario Pays Symphonic Homage to Erased History
Composer Margherita Vicario makes her directorial debut with Gloria!, a period piece recuperating a...
Foreign Tongue (Langue étrangère) | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Tongues Untied: Love Lies Easy in Burger’s Cross Culture Coming of Age Drama
There’s a lot going on in Claire Burger’s third film, Foreign Tongue...
Raíz (Through Rocks and Clouds) | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Walk in the Clouds: Becerra Mines Escapism and Innocence in Quiet Drama
A dwindling group of alpaca herders find themselves on the verge...
My New Friends (Les gens d’à côté) | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Your Friends & Neighbors: Téchiné Tries for Ethical Sentiments
Now in his eighties, director André Téchiné continues his steady, perennial output with the humanist melodrama...
Dying (Sterben) | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Family Matters: Glasner’s Sprawling Portrait of Chaotic Dysfunction
Exemplifying Tolstoy’s famous Anna Karenina quote on ‘every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,’ German...
Some Rain Must Fall | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Mistress of Misery: Yang Explores the Turmoil of Transformation
Here comes the rain again, falling on her head like a tragedy. Or so is the...
Reas | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Caged Birds Singing: Arias Re-enacts Prison Experiences
If Orange is the New Black was being workshopped as a community theater musical, it might resemble something...
My Summer with Irène | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Summertime Sadness: Sironi Escapes to Sicily in Oblique Friendship Drama
There’s no running away from the past, no matter how glorious the sun dappled idyll...
Arcadia | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
None of Us Strangers: Zois Probes Unrest of Our Shadows
“It is a defect of God’s humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to...
From Hilde, With Love | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Germany, Pale Mother: Dresen Locates the Good Germans of WWII
It comes as no surprise an old-fashioned director such Andreas Dresen is adept at making...
My Favorite Cake | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Layer Cake: Moghaddam & Sanaeeha Find Love in a Hopeless Place
If ever there were a film depicting how one cannot have their cake and...
The Editorial Office | 2024 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Winds of War: Bondarchuk Straddles a World On a Wire
While it should play like an absurdist black comedy, Roman Bondarchuk’s sophomore narrative feature...
Perdidos en la noche (Lost in the Night) | Review
Night Moves: Escalante Cultivates a Moody, Capricious Mystery
Replete with a slew of customary features encountered in a fatalistic film noir, Amat Escalante’s fifth feature,...
The Taste of Things | Review
Where’s the Beef?: Tran Anh Hung Activates the Salivary Glands
Gastronomy has never seemed so forlornly romantic as it is in Tran Anh Hung’s sumptuous...
Perfect Days | Review
Road to Nowhere: Wenders Welcomes the Pleasures of a Simple Life in Quiet Drama
In his most successfully realized narrative feature in years, Wim Wenders...
Disco Boy | Review
Mal Travaille: Abbruzzese Finds the Rhythm of the Night in Hypnotic Debut
“E’en hell hath its peculiar laws,” remarked Faust in Goethe’s eternal classic, the...
Grey Bees | 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Life During Wartime: Dmytro Moiseiev Chronicles Everyday Survival In Donbass Before Russia’s Invasion
How did life go on for people living in the grey zone...
Steppenwolf | 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Move Over John Wick: Adilkhan Yerzhanov Unleashes A Bloody Tale Of Vengeance In His Latest Feature
Bleak, bloody, and bullet-riddled, the latest from prolific Kazakh...
Flathead | 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Days And Nights In Bundaberg: Jaydon Martin’s Docu-Fiction Journey Leaves Outsiders Adrift
Falling under an atmospheric shadow of loss and regret, Flathead, the directorial debut...
Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others | 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Camera Crew: Filmmakers Become Family In Farshad Hashemi’s Quietly Defiant Meta-Movie
The problem with being lonely isn’t being alone, it’s how easy it can be...
Swimming Home | 2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam Review
Marriage Story: Justin Anderson Serves Up An Enigmatic Challenge Is His Feature Debut
A marriage in crisis cooks under the summer sun in filmmaker Justin...
Tótem | Review
Life and Death of the Party: Aviles’ Bustling Ensemble Piece Balances Pain & Profundity
Taking place over the course of one frenetic day, Lila...
Under the Fig Trees | Review
Figment of their Imagination: Sehiri’s Baskets Filled with Hope, Humor and Harsh Truths
There is a lot more behind the scenes drama that goes into...
Mambar Pierrette | Review
In Fabric: Mbakam Conveys a Season’s Struggles in Cameroon
“In the ant’s house, the dew is a flood,” might be the proverbial dilemma faced by...
In the Land of Brothers | 2024 Sundance Film Festival Review
Family of Straw: Amirfazli & Ghasemi Present a Trilogy of Familial Tragedies
The title, of course, is a bitter irony relating to Iran’s self-anointed nickname,...
Malu | 2024 Sundance Film Festival Review
A Streetcar Named Desejo: Freire Mines Matriarchal Tendencies
Having directed several short films and television series, Brazilian director Pedro Freire unleashes a motherlode of intergenerational...
Veni Vidi Vici | 2024 Sundance Film Festival Review
Destroy Everything You Touch: Hoesl & Riemann Come to Conquer with Dark Satire
As ABBA once succinctly stated, “Money, money money/Must be funny/In a rich...
Sujo | 2024 Sundance Film Festival Review
Goodbye Horses: Valadez & Rondero Explore a Valley of Violence
Working as co-directors on their latest feature Sujo, Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero once again...
The Settlers | Review
Once Upon a Time in Chile: Haberle Crafts Colonialist Past as a Vicious Western
A quote from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia opens Felipe Gálvez’s sinister...
Memory | Review
Remembrance of Things Past: Franco Bargains for Benevolence in Purgative Love Story
“Memory is something so complex that no list of all its attributes could...
A Male (Un Varón) | Review
Wild in the Streets: Hernandez Explores Toxic Trifecta of Violence, Masculinity and Poverty in Dour Debut
With a streetwise miserabilism as virile as anything from...
Poor Things | Review
The Story of O: Lanthimos Mesmerizes with Fiercely Compelling Frankenstein Tale
“Men have constructed female sexuality and in so doing have annihilated the chance for...
The Zone of Interest | Review
Verboten Zone: Glazer Returns with Historical Horror
It’s impossible to contemplate Jonathan Glazer’s fourth feature, The Zone of Interest, without referencing Hannah Arendt’s publication on...
La syndicaliste | Review
Comedy of Power: Huppert Shines in Whistleblower Expose from Salomé
Making a rare appearance in a ‘based on a true story’ film, Isabelle Huppert elevates...
Monster | Review
The Children’s Hour: Kore-eda Crafts a Melodramatic Puzzle
Returning to his native Japan after venturing out to France and South Korea with his last two...
Fallen Leaves | Review
All the Leaves Are Brown: Kaurismaki’s Song for the Lonely
Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki adds a fourth chapter to his thematic Proletariat Trilogy with...
Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) | Review
Leave Them to Heaven: Ben Hania Experiments with Form in Anguishing Roleplay
For her sixth feature, Four Daughters, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania takes a...
