Riceboy Sleeps
It’s rare to feel like a movie just isn’t quite long enough. Usually, most films could do with less rather than more. But in the case of director Anthony Shim’s second film, Riceboy Sleeps when the...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Beyond Borders Turns 20
It was 20 years ago this week that President George W. Bush authorized the illegal, brutal invasion of Iraq. Though the numbers are disputed, that invasion created at least 200,000 violent deaths (and...
View ArticleOeuvre: Scorsese: Public Speaking
“When I was a child, it was called talking back. Now it’s called public speaking – but it’s really the same,” says Fran Lebowitz towards the beginning of Martin Scorsese’s delightful 2010 documentary...
View ArticleA Good Person
Zach Braff’s been at it for a while now. The 47-year-old actor, famous for his lead role on NBC’s Scrubs, made his directorial debut with 2004’s irrepressibly quirky Garden State, a film that has...
View ArticleJohn Wick: Chapter 4
The John Wick franchise created a distinct space in action filmmaking. Known for its creative martial arts and gunplay, it is also noteworthy what the franchise avoids: there are few explosions, for...
View ArticleWalk Up
More than the average auteur, Hong Sang-soo is known for drawing from a stable of themes, character types and structural conceits. The South Korean director’s work bears autobiographical elements, as...
View ArticleThe Lost King
Not so long ago, there was a period where a new Stephen Frears film would be cause for excitement. Perhaps best known nowadays for the Helen Mirren vehicle The Queen, he also had an impressive ability...
View ArticleTori and Lokita
Over the past 76 years since the Cannes Film Festival was first founded, the annual event has produced several cinematic constants. Until his death in 2022, Jean Luc-Godard could be expected to win...
View ArticleThe Worst Ones
A pointed, slightly startling streak of subversion runs through Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s The Worst Ones, an ostensibly straightforward light social drama that’s nevertheless eager to periodically...
View ArticleRediscover: Motorway
For 11 years, veteran Hong Kong director Soi Cheang has oscillated between gritty crime thrill-ers and martial action, squeezing in the bloody confrontations of Limbo and SPL2 in between his...
View ArticleThe Tutor
It proves quite difficult to discuss the mechanics of The Tutor, an old-fashioned thriller that wants to keep us guessing but ultimately breaches a proverbial contract between a movie and its viewer....
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Ice Castles
When should a director be shamed for their vision? If you’re a gentle, even benevolent soul, you might say that artists would rarely, if ever, be shamed for the art that they create. The Streaming Hell...
View ArticleWhat the Hell Happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?
“The world turned upside down. It was a revelation.” That’s what Romanian musician Doru Stănculescu says about a pivotal moment experienced a day after he turned 20 years old. Was this a sexual...
View ArticleSpinning Gold
In the opening and closing moments of Spinning Gold, a fizzy confection of musical montage in the shape of a movie, we get glimpses of leading man Jeremy Jordan’s own talent for song and dance. He...
View ArticleA Thousand and One
A Thousand and One opens in the vibrant streets and bustling atmosphere of early ’90s Harlem. In her feature directorial debut, A.V. Rockwell captures the city at its most alive, evolving over a span...
View ArticleOeuvre: Scorsese: George Harrison: Living in the Material World
After tackling documentaries about rock godheads Bob Dylan (No Direction Home) and the Rolling Stones (Shine a Light), going for the holy trinity made sense for Martin Scorsese. After telling the story...
View ArticleStalker
If you’re going to set a movie almost entirely within the confines of a stalled elevator, you’d better have compelling writing and get some top-notch performances out of your two leads. Thankfully,...
View ArticleSmoking Causes Coughing
There are few joys greater for a cinephile than seeing a filmmaker yield completely and unconditionally to their impulses. Great cinematic stylists can and often do mold their idiosyncrasies to form...
View ArticleEnys Men
Within the space of four months, three experimental visions of horror have graced cinema screens, each filtered through a different tonal and genre prism. Skinamarink mined skin-crawling unease from...
View ArticleRóise & Frank
Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy seemed to have the essence of spring in the Irish countryside in mind when writing and directing the loveable Róise & Frank. A film about a widow who is...
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