Tag: Foreign Film Review
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...
Reflection in a Dead Diamond | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Feed My Fetish, Please: Cattet & Forzani Pay Homage to the Eurospy in Dazzling Pastiche
Whether giallo gore or Western shaped, their films don’t lose...
What Does that Nature Say to You | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Parent Trap: Sang-soo Takes Sideways Swipe at Social Etiquette
A constant purveyor of how subtle social cues are obliterated by the lowered inhibitions of...
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...
Dreams (Sex Love) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love on the Brain: Haugerud Caps Trilogy with Teenage Wasteland
With his latest film Dreams (Sex Love) (aka Drømmer), the final installment in his thematic...
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 Ice Tower (La Tour de Glace) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hearts of Glass: Hadžihalilović Casts a Wintry Spell
A chilly scene of winter unfolds in La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) at a glacial...
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...
Dreams | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Magnificent Obsession: Franco Finds Love is a Hopeless Place
Michel Franco lassos Jessica Chastain into his continued class conflict examinations in Dreams, an intimate portrait...
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...
Hot Milk | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Eternal Daughter: Lenkiewicz Ladles the Milk of Sorrows
Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz makes her directorial debut with Hot Milk, an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s comically...
Little Trouble Girls | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Circles of Perfection: Djukić Surveys the Compromises of Sexual Awakening
Taking its title from the 1995 Sonic Youth track Little Trouble Girls (Kaj ti je...
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...
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...
Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
Ripe Fruits: Kanawade Taps the Bittersweet Rind of Going Home Again
While there’s been an uptick in contemporary LGBTQ+ films from India over the past...
Sauna | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
Love Me If You Dare: Broe Explores Love in a Hopeless Place
Harlan Ellison’s publication Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled might be a more...
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...
The Things You Kill | 2025 Sundance Film Festival Review
A Poison Tree: Khatami Deconstructs the Psychoses of Patriarchy
For his third feature, Iranian American director Alireza Khatami formulates a powerful psychodrama unspooling through the...
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...
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...