Tag: World Cinema review
Anatomy of a Fall | Review
Witness for the Prosecution: Triet Beguiles with Knotty Crime Procedural
Justine Triet reunites with several of her Sibyl (2019) collaborators on her best film to...
The Royal Hotel | Review
Kitty Green Takes her 'Assistant’ To The Outback in Sunburn Sizzler
After exploring the ways in which workplace rape culture enables predators like Harvey Weinstein...
More Than Ever (Plus que jamais) | Review
When the Body Speaks: Krieps & Ulliel Fight for the Right Balance in Atef’s Final Voyage Drama
A too young to die portrait that sees...
Saturn Bowling | Review
Nightmare (Bowling) Alley: Mazuy Shocks with Disturbing Thriller
Every once in a while, a film comes along which conceptualizes brutality so shocking and vile it...
Robe of Gems | Review
Trojan Women: Lopez Crafts Collage of Complicity in Stellar Debut
For her directorial debut Robe of Gems (Manto de gemas), Natalia López Gallardo resists expectations...
En attendant la nuit (For Night Will Come) | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
I Was a Teenage Vampire: Rouzet Insists the Family That Slays Together Stays Together
For her narrative feature debut, En attendant la nuit (For Night...
El Conde | Review
Death Becomes Him: Larrain Resurrects a Dictator in Bizarre Black Comedy
For his most subversive film to date (and likely the most beautiful and perverse...
Without Air | 2023 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
A Teacher Fights For Her Job In Katalin Moldovai’s Simmering Indictment of Hungary’s Culture Wars
Agnieszka Holland’s largely forgotten (and quite awful) 1995 biopic Total...
Hors-saison | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Lover Come Back: Romance Rekindles in Brizé’s Elegant Exploration of Regret
The universal dilemma of romantic regret is wondering ‘what could have been’ based on...
Woman Of… | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Pieces of a Woman: Szumowska & Englert Compose Compassionate Portrait of Trans Woman
“Testosterone is power,” confirms one physician advising Andrzej, the protagonist of Malgorzata...
Lubo | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Children of a Lesser God: Diritti Highlights Swiss War Crimes in Prolonged Drama
The actual history being explored in Giorgio Diritti’s three-hour drama Lubo is...
Holly | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Girl with All the Gifts: Torch Tiptoes into Genre with Aloof Drama
Belgian director Fien Troch has built a steadfast filmography on quietly painful...
The Summer With Carmen | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Write Stuff: Life Becomes Art in Mavroeidis Sun Dappled Debut
Hindsight is 20/20, especially when it comes to using romantic liaisons as creative fodder...
Following the Sound | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Not in the Script: Sugita’s New Form of Companionship Takes on Heartaches and Heartbreaks
Rewriting the notion of what it truly means to follow someone...
Enea | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Deal or No Deal: Castellitto Distracted by Design in Drug Pusher Drama
Director Pietro Castellitto embarks on a familial affair with sophomore film Enea, in...
The Palace | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
It’s Only the End of the World: Polanski Checks Out with Broad Satire
As many are likely to avoid The Palace, the latest film from persona...
Making Of | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Working Class Goes to the Back Lot: Kahn Prosaically Processes a Director’s Strife
What should cinema be and who should it be made for?...
Love Is a Gun | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Lucky Number Seven: The Grabbing Hands Grab All They Can in Lee Hong-Chi’s Debut
Working as both a crime film (non-gangster former life) and drama-soaked...
Vermines | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Spider’s Stratagem: Vanicek Weaves Familiar Web with Debut Creature Feature
Creature features have an odd way of satisfying a variety of our escapist desires,...
Adagio | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Rome, Smoking City: Sollima Languorous Thriller Tiresomely Tests Narrative Cliches
The most apropos element of Stefano Sollima’s Adagio is the title itself, as it’s two-hour-plus...
Sobre todo la noche (Foremost the Night) | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Other Mothers: Iriarte’s Debut a Murky Mix of Neo Noir and Melodrama
For his film debut Foremost the Night, Víctor Iriarte frames his peculiarly staged...
Finalmente L’Alba (Finally Dawn) | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Cruel Intentions: Costanzo Pays Homage to the Demi-Monde of the Italian Film Industry
After adapting Elena Ferrante’s "My Brilliant Friend" for television, Saverio Costanzo returns...
Sidonie au Japon | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Second Chance Romance: Girard Haunts Huppert in Erstwhile Ghost Story
Isabelle Huppert conjoins two of her most recent recurring cinematic themes with Sidonie in Japan,...
Bastarden (The Promised Land) | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
The Good Earth: Arcel Inherits the Wind with Romanticized Historical Recuperation
After making his English language debut with the imperiled Stephen King adaptation The Dark...
L’ordine del tempo | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
Time After Time: Cavani Commits Time Crimes in Overwrought Farce
What does time mean when we’re all out of it? Thus is the quagmire...
Comandante | 2023 Venice Film Festival Review
And the Sea Will Tell: De Angelis Sells the Soft Side of Fascism
Napolitano director Edoardo De Angelis embarks on his most lavish offering to...
Piaffe | Review
Horse Girl: Oren Gets Hot to Trot in Strange, Alluring Debut
What is it about horses, exactly, and their tacit parallels with subterranean conduits of...
Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation | Review
Death in the Garden: Chebbi Debuts Eerie, Nuanced Murder Mystery
In a supremely frightening sense, the events transpiring in Ashkal (which means ‘shapes’ in Arabic) recalls...
Love Life | Review
Love the One You’re With: Fukada Explores Love and Death as Unhappy Accidents
The instability of romance is the only real given in the intimate...
Stepne | 2023 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Land That Time Forgot: Vroda Mines Eroding Memories in Speculative Debut
Thomas Wolfe meant You Can’t Go Home Again metaphorically, but such might literally...
Animal | 2023 Locarno Film Festival Review
Boogie Nights: Exarchou Doses Summertime Sadness in Achy Melodrama
For anyone who’s ever wondered what life might be like for employees at any tourist trap...
Return to Dust | Review
The Good Earth: Ruijun Crafts Poignant Portrait of Transformative Love
Director Li Ruijun returns to familiar themes in his sixth feature, Return to Dust, a...
Final Cut (Coupez!) | Review
Primetime Cut: Hazanavicius Returns to Absurdity with Overdone Zombie Remake
Michel Hazanavicius has certainly established his affection for the nonsensical, making a name for himself...
Afire | Review
Pleasure to Burn: Petzold Stokes the Flames in Diffident Drama
A fragile male ego finds itself dismantled in Afire (Roter Himmel), the second chapter...
Nobody’s Hero (Viens je t’emmène) | Review
We Don’t Need Another Hero: Guiraudie Gets Kooky in Political Comedy of Errors
Alain Guiraudie migrates from rural perversity to urban calamity in the comically...
Scarlet (L’Envol) | Review
Come Sail Away: Marcello Runs Aground in Muddled Adaptation
Pietro Marcello returns to literature for inspiration in his third narrative feature (and French language debut),...
Padre Pio | Review
In the Name of the Father: Ferrara Explore Infamous Saint with Guerrilla Branded Biopic
Like many of Abel Ferrara’s projects hobbled by various production issues,...
Falcon Lake | Review
Baptism by Water: Unrequited Longing & Fear Found in Le Bon's Simmering Debut
In a perfect swirl of the uninitiated and inhibition, in her directorial...
Unclenching the Fists | Review
So Daddy, I’m Finally Through: Kovalenko Explores Familial Dysfunction in Rural Melodrama
The suppression of women by the heteropatriarchy is tale as ancient as civilization,...
Il sol dell’avvenire (A Brighter Tomorrow) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
If You Don’t Die Today: Moretti Can’t Find the Rhythm in Musical Delusion
To say the latest film from Nanni Moretti, Il sol dell'avvenire (A Brighter...
Rien à perdre (All to Play For) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Other People’s Children: Deloget Butts with Bureaucracy in Familial Drama
Virginie Efira continues to explore the arduous spectrum of contemporary motherhood in her latest film,...
Kidnapped (Rapito) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
A Soul to Take: Bellocchio Deliriously Dissects a Papal Delictum
Marco Bellocchio has lost none of his flair nor his energetic zest in his latest...
The Buriti Flower (Crowrã) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Rites of Resistance: Messora & Salaviza Provide Historical Ellipses of the Krahô
Researching a community without causing hindrance or harm has long been a concern...
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
The End of the Affair: Naveriani Finds Love in a Hopeless Place
Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani solidifies her gravitational pull towards examining rural social misfits...
Il pleut dans la maison (It’s Raining in the House) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Baby the Rain Must Fall: Life Imitates Art in Serman-Daï’s Narrative Debut
There’s a literalness in It’s Raining In The House (Il pleut dans la maison)...
Les meutes (Hounds) | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Wash Away Your Sins: The Apple Falls a Bit Further Out From the Tree in Lazraq’s Stunning Debut
Father and son learn the power of...
Le retour | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Put a Label on It: Corsini’s Corsica is a Lieu for Inter & Intra-personal Growth
Napoleon Bonaparte’s birthplace is certainly a site rich in history...
Ama Gloria | 2023 Cannes Film Festival Review
Cléo Entre 5 et 7: Everyone Shares the Same Song in Amachoukeli’s Sophisticated Sophomore Feature
Letting go is never easy but what happens when it’s...
The Night of the 12th | Review
Hero Complex: Moll Refreshes Detective Procedural with Cat's Paw Narrative
With his early naughts (With a Friend Like Harry..., Lemming) and grisly disappearance thriller Only...
Butterfly Vision | Review
Coming Home: Nakonechnyi Explores Collateral Damage in Prescient Drama
While the near decade long conflict between Russian and Ukraine has spilled into full-blown war, a...
