Italian Studies is a banal, ponderous work that fails to land on any interesting or governing thesis. Dislocation and dissociation lie at the heart of…
“A little more passion, though, would have been appreciated.” So says Dave Kehr of American — by way of London by way of France —…
The House isn’t quite a home, its neat little anthology package coming too much untied in a miscalculated final leg. The latest in Netflix’s endless stream…
Brazen is slickly made, but it’s otherwise firmly rooted in ’80s Lifetime thriller territory. As a title, Brazen sounds a little old-fashioned, a promise of titillation…
2022’s Scream is a sincere betrayal of the franchise’s legacy and devoid of Craven’s masterful craft and play. A rejoinder to a dead subgenre, Wes Craven’s 1996…
The Whaler Boy undermines any potential for naturalism and rawness with slick artifice and discordant commercial style. Philipp Yuryev’s debut feature The Whaler Boy takes us…
An imperfect film, The Pink Cloud nonetheless stands as one of the defining pandemic texts despite — or perhaps because of — its predated genesis. Iuli Gerbase’s…
Shattered is a sleazy erotic thriller knockoff, one that never realizes its camp potential but which boasts a few poor-taste pleasures along the way. Hidden within…
Expedition Content takes to task the supremacy of the visual in film, delivering a vibrant, versatile work of experimental ethnography. Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati’s Expedition Content…
Woodlands Dark is exceedingly thoughtful and never less than riveting despite its length, a film destined to become an important work of criticism. In 2012,…
Calling Tsai Ming-liang’s body of work interconnected doesn’t begin to cover the throughlines that have developed over the span of more than three decades. One…
A week awaited, but our writers’ Top 5 Albums of 2021 have arrived. Long-time readers may not be surprised with our pick for #1, but…
Misguided as female-driven blockbuster and unappealing as actioner, The 355 offers little to chew on. There is something rather refreshing in the fact that new action…
One day more until our Top 5 Ablums of 2021 are revealed, but we’re stopping over at #6-10 in the meantime, which reflect perhaps the…
Although it doesn’t quite stick the landing, See For Me is still a precise, no-frills genre exercise that makes the most of its limited budget and…
We’ve reached the halfway point of our Top Albums of 2021 countdown, delivering today thoughts on albums that ranked #11-15 in our writer’s poll. Most…
The King’s Man is a tale of two films, neither of which belong in the other’s world. Every year, there’s at least one. In the odd…
Day 2 of our Top Albums of 2021 countdown, meaning we have thoughts on favorites #16-20 today. Most albums, even if we previously covered them,…
Today marks our Top Albums of 2021 countdown in earnest, beginning here with #21-25. Most albums, even if we previously covered them, have been revisited…
Return to Hogwarts is the latest Harry Potter product to trade in empty nostalgia for sole the purpose of propping up the money-making franchise. As…
What could one say about the state of music released in 2021? No, not Music (2021) directed by Sia, but the albums, EPs, mixtapes, live-streamed…