Desire Lines is a hybrid film that understands the themes it wants to address, but struggles to find the formal means. Part conventional talking heads…
Cinema has undergone two significant, canvas-expanding innovations so far in the 21st century. The first, as ushered in especially by the films of Timur Bekmambetov…
Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam’s debut feature, Mambar Pierrette, opens with the mundane rhythms of domestic work. Mambar (Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat), a seamstress in the city…
Where have all the taboo romances gone? Admittedly, the trailer for Jade Halley Bartlett’s Miller’s Girl didn’t inspire much hope for their return, particularly since…
In Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying, the protagonist — a young office worker named Fran (Daisy Ridley) — leads a scheduled life both…
From the first moments of Tótem, it’s easy to think about Lucas Dhont, which is never a good thing. Like Dhont’s recently released Close, Lila…
For action fans of a certain persuasion (read: low- and mid-budget DTV), just seeing the names Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Aaron Toney, Tim Man,…
Any new dystopian science fiction release on Netflix — TV show, live-action film, animation, short, whatever — emanates a deep sense of foreboding. This isn’t…
There’s something to be said for the classic rom-com template. Many may find the standard 90-minute course of events tired, but there’s comfort to be…
In the opening of his 1994 novel A Frolic of His Own, William Gaddis writes: “Justice? – You get justice in the next world, in…
Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s most impressive career achievement to-date might have come during the 2013 Golden Horse Awards, when his debut feature, Ilo Ilo, won…
Most religions around the world have a flood story. Whether it’s Noah’s Ark, the manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, or the Cheyenne saga of the Great Flood,…
A lush, elemental reckoning unfurls across the relatively condensed runtime of Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s debut, The Settlers, even if few of its proceedings strictly qualify…
Newly christened Director’s Fortnight General Delegate Julien Rejl has expressed a desire to highlight new voices with his first programmed slate — not just by…
It’s not often you get to see a space-based thriller that doesn’t come with a massive VFX budget and a huge marketing push. Delivering viewers…
I have clear memories of watching Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009) as a pre-teen. The spring and summertime passages of the film are most prominent…
Time was, you could go see a slasher movie where the people making it seemed most concerned with providing gnarly kills, suspense, and perhaps a…
Phạm Thiên Ân’s road to filmmaking was circuitous. Born to a Catholic family in the rural mountains of Vietnam’s southern Lam Dong province, he spent…
If there is one subgenre that has sadly been neglected in the 21st century, it’s that of the airplane thriller, where the action unfurls in…
“Like all history,” says an updated Damian (Jaquel Spivey) to the refreshed Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) and Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho), “this story is emotionally layered…