Of film history’s lost White Whales — the complete Magnificent Ambersons, for example, or The Day the Clown Cried — the eventual release of The…
Michael Showalter, in the past decade, has parlayed his success as a comedic writer and performer into a career as a writer-director of audience-pleasing dramedies…
Married directorial pair Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani have consistently risked being hit by the type of criticism that considers “postmodernism” a dirty word. Many…
Now in its 36th edition, the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) has taken on a most prominent role within the country’s cultural landscape, drawing younger…
Over the weekend of November 14-16, I viewed the entirety of Twin Peaks: The Return, screened thanks to the great efforts of the Philadelphia Film…
It’s not uncommon for an international film to obtain a different name in English-speaking markets, and that ends up being the case with Little Trouble…
A former editor-in-chief of mine once told me to write lightly about heavy matters, and heavily about light ones — an adage that easily applies…
Julia Jackman’s sophomore feature 100 Nights of Hero, adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, has the shape and tone of a…
Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino is back on terra firma with La Grazia, his second film to premiere in less than 18 months, following on the heels…
With only two features — 2020’s Shithouse and 2022’s Cha Cha Real Smooth — and a short film under his belt, Cooper Raiff has already…
In Japan, where customs and a sturdy veneer of politeness greatly determine how people interact with one another, there is a strong emphasis on propriety,…
A visual motif that reoccurs throughout Rebecca Zlotowski’s latest film, A Private Life, is a spiral staircase. Beyond being chic and Parisian in the way…
“There comes a time when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun.” When Sara Jane Moore attempted and…
With all the upheaval in recent years, it seems like there is only one constant across the film industry: producing an independent animated feature is…
In the darkness of your room Your mother calls you by your true name You remember the faces the places the names You know it’s…
A Summer Tale A man has fallen: Argentine director Matías Szulanski’s A Summer Tale opens with a classic noir setup, one rendered gorgeously in Sunset…
A man has fallen: Argentine director Matías Szulanski’s A Summer Tale opens with a classic noir setup, one rendered gorgeously in Sunset Boulevard, Le Jour…
Action films might be the closest argument we still have for cinema as a universal language. It’s the most exportable genre, with stars and filmmakers…
Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale of Silyan begins with a recounting of an old Macedonian fable. Young Silyan, tired of backbreaking labor on the family farm,…
Misery isn’t a genre, but it’s a motif and an emotion that many independent and arthouse films seem to think is the defining state of…