In this dispatch: Agon, Donkey Days, Fantasy…
What a strange thing, the Olympics. In 1896, with the tools for globalization just barely on the horizon, the world (or, rather, Greece, leveraging its…
If one were being deliberately reductive, the logline for Dutch director-screenwriter Rosanne Pel’s sophomore film Donkey Days could read as a near-exact twin of Joachim…
In the first half of Fantasy, Isabel Pagliai’s feature debut, it is easy to become fixated on Fatty, the Calico-mix cat who lives with the…
The international breakthrough of All We Imagine as Light in 2024, which was the first Indian film to play in Cannes competition in 30 years,…
When you see a lot of movies at film festivals, you begin to notice certain patterns in the cinema as a whole. One such pattern…
Originally popularized and coveted by the Western world, the esteemed traveler cut a formidable figure for its elites: the rationalists for their admiration of breathtaking…
If Peter Farrelly acquired any auteurist pretensions after undeservedly winning the Oscar for Best Picture with his insincere race-relations road movie Green Book (2018), he…
To watch a Pete Ohs film is to watch a film unspool right before your eyes. While that may sound obvious — all movies play…
Frédéric Da wants to make it known that his new social drama, isaiah’s phone, is a work of complete fiction. This despite the film’s unsettling…
Purists will surely find something to cavil at in Aneil Karia’s latest spin on William Shakespeare’s greatest and longest play, Hamlet, as is so often…
Existing at the nexus of fashion, popular music, and horror, David Lowery’s Mother Mary, a multi-genre whatsit, proudly wears its pretentiousness on its (couture) sleeve.…
Sophy Romvari has used cinema to mine the fractured, seemingly incomplete nature of her family history since her first short film, Nine Behind. In that…
Few filmmakers have the benefit of having real, honest-to-goodness hype around their debut feature. Many of our best talents come out of nowhere with very…
It wasn’t too surprising to watch Bob Odenkirk transition from a comedian to a sturdy dramatic actor; that kind of thing happens all the time.…
The Part-Time shorts program, in collaboration with Now Instant Image Hall, was presented at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies in two blocks. The first…
Ben Wheatley has done it all. From humble beginnings with killer indies like Down Terrace and Kill List to Hollywood mega-productions like Rebecca and The…
After it was reported that MUBI had received a $100 million investment from venture capitalists with ties to an Israeli defense tech firm in May…
“The working man is a sucker” — so reads the opening title card of Joel Alfonso Vargas’ debut feature, Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny,…
In my day job as a college writing instructor, there is a lot of talk about “multi-modal composition.” This simply means that instead of remaining…
Josh Heap’s City Wide Fever is the best kind of micro-budget, DIY indie film, one that doesn’t attempt to hide its poverty of means but leans into…