In his 2020 dark comedy Dinner in America, director Adam Carter Rehmeier captured the stifling stagnancy of life in suburban America and the simmering urge…
Allow me to posit a cinephilic contention: that cinema is perhaps the most formally complete of all art forms — or rather, a blistering confection…
In 2021, the Tolkien barrel was finally empty — it was less than empty. Christopher Tolkien, hitherto guardian of his father’s legacy, had died the…
I observe a Dry January most years. Usually, I drink to a moderate level, and prefer alcohol as a sedative rather than as a party…
A woman gazes out a window before heading to an event to receive an award. As the pleasantries die down, her smile fades, and she…
Renoir went relatively unnoticed when it premiered in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, its squat, youthful perspective perhaps lost amid the crowd of…
A commonly held belief about Chinese documentary cinema is that, prior to the 1990s and the “New Documentary Movement,” the work of their filmmakers consisted…
“His parents were already in bed and asleep, the clock on the wall struck its uniform beat, the wind whistled by the rattling windows; the…
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…
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…
Patrick Wang has been operating on his own terms since his filmmaking career began in 2011 with In the Family. The nearly three-hour story of…
Koki, Ciao, the award-winning Dutch experimental short film, is dictated by an unusual protagonist with a storied life, known for charming the likes of Sophia…
While some cinema traditionalists may wring their hands at the prospect of YouTubers taking over the world, we’re at a point where it’s no longer…
It is not a steady wind that brings Nietzsche to the criticism of Magnificent Obsession, a film whose slavish self-sacrifice would doubtless atomize the long-dead…
The plant world is a marvel of sight and sound, this Ildikó Enyedi knows. Across several features, the Hungarian writer-director has been steadily uprooting the…
Initially undistributed and reportedly rejected by film festivals such as Sundance and SXSW last year, prior to the acquisition courtesy of rookie distributor Obscured Releasing…
The Burmese python — an invasive species eating into native animal populations in the Florida Everglades — might be at the heart of Xander Robin’s…
Since stepping down as In Review Online’s Editor-in…
Shot on a Sony PD150 handheld, with very few, if any, location permits, and a lead actress change halfway through production, City Wide Fever shouldn’t…
Sometimes you just want to be scared. Is that too much to ask? Not if you’re Damian Mc Carthy. Across three features, the Irish director…
“Living out of a suitcase” and splitting her time between New York and Madrid, Isabel Sandoval arrived in Manila in early February. She returned to…