Reviews

When You Finish Saving the World Is it the least shocking film development ever that Jesse Eisenberg, one of our most anxious, idiosyncratic performers, centered his directorial debut around two highly anxious, idiosyncratic characters? If …

The reported heinous acts committed by the Russian government sound like something straight out of a 1970s political thriller. And that’s probably exactly how they like it. “If you want to kill someone,” Alexei Navalny …

If you’ve watched an indie film or two in your day, odds are you’ve stumbled upon a movie about a white guy who just can’t figure things out. They have no idea what to do …

Clean is a passion project of sorts for one Mr. Adrien Brody. He serves as the film’s star, co-writer, co-producer, and even composer. It took about a decade to get this film from his imagination, to …

Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love is truly a sensory overload, and not just because of its staggering archival footage of gorgeous volcanoes. On top of that, it’s edited like a French New Wave film to the tune …

After Yang has one of my favorite recent open credits sequences: after a few muted back-and-forths, Jake (Colin Farrell), his wife Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), his daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), and his android Yang (Justin …

Adapted from author Annie Ernaux’s quasi-memoir of the same title, and having instantly propelled itself into a modern canon of films about the stark realities of abortion — among them being Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 …

Rebecca Hall has been on a tear as of late, starring in one severely disturbing film after the next, while also taking time to direct a very impressive debut feature in Passing (which continues to …

If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if Terrence Malick in The-Tree-of-Life-mode directed a horror film, it would probably look something like Goran Stolevski’s staggering feature debut, You Won’t Be Alone. My first bold statement …

Director Carey Williams has an exceptionally powerful film on his hands with Emergency, the first great film I’ve seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Based on his short film (that also premiered at Sundance) …

Underneath the surface of most films about online life are commonplace themes about appearances and authenticity: the consequences of anonymity, the rapid spread of misinformation, the ways that social media limits expression of our genuine …

Every once and a while, a filmmaker comes along to flip the script and tackle themes and ideas that most are afraid to touch. Sean Baker has done this his entire career, but especially with …

“People are desperate to tell you who they are.” This lesson is one of many imparted to Stan (Bradley Cooper) in the first act of Nightmare Alley — the story of a rise and fall …

The media is composed of a large segment of our contemporary society, being the main channel of collective mass communication. The media consists of broadcasting, publishing, and the internet, which includes, but is not limited …

I often find myself listening to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s compositions as I go about my day, either those tied to the films he scored in the 2010s or his original works. He had a knack for …

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is not a conventional documentary, though that was the original intention. Its inception started nearly forty years ago, in 1982. Robert B. Weide had just finished a well-received PBS documentary …

Adding Bruce Campbell to your cast will automatically attract any genre enthusiast. The man is a legend, possibly one of the most charismatic men on the planet. A man so charismatic, I’m seriously considering watching …

Driving can be a profound experience. It is difficult to articulate the feeling of what it’s like to ponder a great many things while you drive in solitude, or that quiet mutual moment of bonding …

At 83 years old, Ridley Scott is still cranking out consistently great and entertaining films. Just last month, he released The Last Duel which is the frontrunner for the most underseen and under-appreciated film of 2021. Now …

If you want to see how far a movie franchise can change in tone, watch the original Rocky and then its third sequel, Rocky IV. You can see the evolution (or devolution, if you prefer) …

There was a time when Jason Reitman was one of the most exciting, up-and-coming voices in the film industry. The son of Ivan Reitman began to see his rise to prominence in the film industry …

Over the past few years, Jim Cummings has become one of the most promising up-and-coming filmmakers, not only on the indie scene, but in the world of filmmaking. Cummings has proven himself to be an …

If you have never heard about Albert Speer, this documentary is a great introduction to his life. He grew up in a bourgeois family and studied architecture and eventually became a confidant of Hitler. He …

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble. It’s a story we all know. One of Shakespeare’s many classics, The Tragedy of Macbeth takes pride in being a new spin on the 1606 …

In an era where we’re overwhelmed with features made during quarantine, it’s hard to find a film that strays from the rest and is actually worthwhile watching. While Language Lessons doesn’t necessarily go above and …

Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman once said, “no art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” To many of us, …

There’s a line that creators of topical art must keep in mind as it’s being crafted — so easy is it to become melodramatic, “preachy”, or unrealistic. The slightest misstep can take a viewer out …

With 2021’s Cannes Grand Prix win on its back, Compartment No. 6 brings to life a self-reflective, alcohol-filled drama. Establishing an unlikely friendship between a Finnish student and a Russian miner, Laura (Seidi Haarla) and …

Here it is. After so many delays, James Bond has finally returned to the big screen. This was going to be Daniel Craig’s swan song for the character, the man who once famously said he …

To discuss Pedro Almodóvar is to acknowledge not just the transgressive streak of his early filmography, but also the post-Julieta change of pace that the Spanish auteur has undergone with his latest few works. With …