In the 1960s, the sociologist duo Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss noticed a phenomenon quite common in healthcare. What they call “a ritual…
A ghost story doesn’t always have to manifest in slamming doors and falling objects. A possession might not send your body writhing in manic contortions…
The debut feature from Spanish director Lucía Aleñar Iglesias is a different kind of coming-of-age story, one that finds its young protagonist Cata (Zoe Stein)…
A roundup of all our thoughts from the Cannes 2026 festival.
Writer-director Boots Riley serves a vital role in the world of pop filmmaking, and that sentiment is not at all diluted by the fact that…
At the start of Manas, Tielle’s world seems boundless, idyllic. Tielle, short for Marcielle, is a 13-year-old girl played with astounding maturity by Jamilli Correa.…
Ah, another installment in the Times Square chronicles for this critic, and this time, a film truly worthy of such an environment — meaning, it’s…
Shana, Lila Pinell’s debut narrative feature, centers on a character who is immediately compelling, yet whose complexities and internal contradictions unspool gradually throughout the film’s…
The profane and the sacred prove fairly close in Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven. One need look no further than the premise of the…
Passenger starts with a prayer. “Carry me safely to my destined place, like you carried Christ in your close embrace,” ends the prayer to St.…
Yukiko Sode’s slice-of-life epic All the Lovers in the Night clocks in at just under two and a half hours, but feels far more alive…
Watching La Perra, the new film from Dominga Sotomayor, one may be reminded of those pet adoption bumper stickers that read “who rescued who?” In…
In 2021, a residential area in the southside of Glasgow, Scotland, exploded into an impromptu stand-off against police and deportation officers. Early on May 13,…
When a documentary’s primary source material and subject of inquiry is revealed to be vlog content, YouTube channels, and other ephemera of pre- and early-aughts…
The Quran states that “whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of humanity.” The Station, the debut feature from Yemeni…
For the first time in seven years, there’s a new Star Wars movie in theaters, and somehow it’s up for debate if anyone actually cares…
Maddening as it is that the middlebrow (leaning low) fodder of yesteryear continues to serve as a lightning rod for conservative megacorporations eager to cash…
As landmark movies go, Lisandro Alonso’s 2001 debut Freedom could hardly have been less fitting. A documentary/fiction hybrid chronicling one day in the life of…
The very best instances of allegory are those that allow themselves to be completely ignored. Too often, an artist only pretends to be interested in…
By way of disclaimer, some years back I collaborated with one of the lead organizers of Spectacle Theater’s STRUCTURE. WAVE. YOUTH. CINEMA. (SWYC) series (and…
The gifted prodigy who’s gone to seed is a time-honored trope that will never leave us because it flatters both filmmakers and actors. A streetwise…