Sky
In her new feature, co-writer-director Fabienne Berthaud attempts to portray personal reinvention in the face of turmoil, a novel gaze upon the mid-life crisis. This endeavor is largely a failed one....
View ArticleFrom the Vaults of Streaming Hell: Daughter of Dawn
Of the tens of thousands of films produced during the silent era, at least 70 percent are now unavailable, either because they were carelessly lost due to improper storage, the highly flammable silver...
View Article13 Cameras
Like any good horror film should, 13 Cameras seizes upon real-world anxieties: fear of the surveillance state; fear of settling down; fear of your fragrantly unbathed landlord. What prevails, however,...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-wai: Fallen Angels
Frequently cited as the film in which Wong Kar-wai parodies himself, Fallen Angels, released in 1995, shares more than a few structural, stylistic and narrative choices with Chungking Express. In fact...
View ArticleRio, I Love You
The best one can hope for with an anthology film is that the good segments will outweigh the bad. But the “Cities of Love” series was dubious to begin with, and the third installment of this franchise,...
View ArticleThe Meddler
Sitting down for a little over an hour and a half with an overbearing mother seems like a headache waiting to happen, a headache many can get for free just by listening to their voicemail. But it...
View ArticleTale of Tales
Running less than 30 minutes in length, Yuriy Norshteyn’s 1979 Tale of Tales is an animated masterwork of stunning range and complexity. Presenting an entrancing narrative in a musical, loosely...
View ArticleRediscover: Women in Revolt
As with many of the brash, self-consciously tacky films released under the Warhol house brand, Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt emerges as a serious parody project with a few distinct origin points,...
View ArticleA Hologram for the King
Despite the popularity of novelist Dave Eggers, there haven’t been any major film adaptations of his work, probably because his knowingly scattershot style isn’t exactly friendly to the conventions of...
View ArticleMen and Chicken
One of the cruel realities of being born is that you don’t get to choose your family. For better or worse, bonds written in blood are inescapable, even when they become a burden. This fact weighs...
View ArticleCriminally Underrated: Pioneers in Ingolstadt
Rainer Werner Fassbinder left behind over 40 feature films when he died in 1982, so it’s understandable that some of them get overlooked. While Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and The Marriage of Maria Braun...
View ArticleEva Hesse
Marcie Begleiter’s directorial debut, Eva Hesse, traces the enthralling life of the eponymous visual artist. The film is superb, supported by rigorous archival documentation and buoyed by Hesse’s...
View ArticleThe Man Who Knew Infinity
There’s something utterly infuriating about a perfectly likable film that satisfies the senses but suffers—willingly or otherwise—from stylistic inertia. They’re enjoyable enough in the moment and...
View ArticleThe Family Fang
The term “dramedy” is best avoided. Like “rom-com” or “Brangelina,” it’s a media-invented portmanteau that’s not unlike vomit in word form. If not vomit, then at least a foul smell, and certainly not...
View ArticleOeuvre: Wong Kar-wai: Happy Together
In various ways, Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (1997) is a “transitional” film. When it was released, the Hong Kong director was in a state of egress, both stylistically and professionally. As the...
View ArticleThe Wait
The Wait is the aptly named feature debut from Italian filmmaker Piero Messina. It has a deliberate pace, patiently building tension so that waiting is a necessary component of viewing it. The film...
View ArticleDough
There are no two ways about it: describing Dough as a feel-good movie carries with it inherent criticism. John Goldschmidt’s movie is certainly capable enough and enjoyable, but the script by Jez...
View ArticleRediscover: Oslo, August 31st
Joachim Trier and his regular collaborator, cinematographer Jakob Ihre, craft films about literature. Oslo, August 31st, their tremendous second feature, is no exception. It is the second film based on...
View ArticleViva
The transgender community has dominated cultural consciousness over the past month for all of the wrong reasons. It has been the target of discriminatory legislation passed in North Carolina and...
View ArticleViktoria
Bulgarian-born Maya Vitkova’s ambitious directorial debut Viktoria is a sprawling character study of three generations of women. The film spans nearly two decades and runs for nearly three hours along...
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