By the time Chor Yuen’s Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan released in 1972, the image of wuxia in Hong Kong cinema had changed dramatically.…
Why does Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud continue to haunt? It follows from a distance and just when I think I’ve settled up — maybe three years…
Murina’s second half almost helps the film realize its pursuit of unsettling inquiry, but outside of its opening and closing shots, there’s too little formal…
Patrick: Hi there Ryan. Happy to be corresponding with you once again! And on the deceptively dense new work from Olivier Assayas, a miniseries revamp…
Fire of Love is an gorgeous visual document that is somewhat undermined by its inorganic and distracting voiceover work. Despite boasting a title that seems…
Even within the teen romance subgenre, Hello, Goodbye stands out as particularly bland, delivering signifiers and signposts in place of genuine substance. Marketing materials for…
Both Sides of the Blade is a work of true entropy, a unique film in Denis’ oeuvre that leverages a newfound sense of languor to…
Moon, 66 Questions is a film that thrillingly channels the ebbs and tides of both physical movement and emotional trauma to affecting results. Moon, 66…
The Rise of Gru is gorgeously animated and has fun with its ’70s setting, but there’s a clear vein of laziness that keeps it from…
Thor: Love and Thunder is a film that has TV series written all over it, and is but the latest MCU entry to land with…
Incantation is found footage horror that does little to add fresh twists to a stale formula, instead relying on a non-stop barrage of tired genre…
During the summer of 1991, cousins Robert “Bobby” Diggs and Gary Grice were trying to get busy and do the impossible. They had both released…
Fourth of July is a clumsy, charmless “comedy” destined to be immediately forgotten about. You have to hand it to Louis C.K.: he may be…
The Unknown Country Non-fiction scenarios and non-professional actors are often characterized as so rich and unpredictable that all a director needs to be is a…
OK, so things don’t really vanish anymore: even the most limited film release will (most likely, eventually) find its way onto some streaming service or…
Hallelujah doesn’t quite strike the right balance between portrait of the artist and myth of the song, but its littered pleasures will likely still be enough…
Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe offers the type of low-stakes low humor that demands little but gives generously to those willing to engage. Beavis and…
The Forgiven doesn’t have any substance or style to elevate its tired tale of how rich people suck. “Rich people behaving badly” has become such an…
Clara Sola is a bold, confrontational work, perhaps a bit too blunt in its symbolism, but carried through by Chinchilla Araya’s raw, enigmatic performance. The debut…
Taking place entirely in the frigid confines of an Antarctic research lab, John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror masterpiece The Thing makes for exceptionally chilling post-pandemic…
We’s length is felt perhaps a bit too much, but it’s ultimately a visually rich and vigorous film that locates a warm humanity with the…