The name Duplass has become so synonymous with indie filmmaking, and Jay’s fingers (along with brother Mark) have found themselves in so many different pots,…
Much was made after the premiere of James Sweeney’s second feature, Twinless, of a steamy sex scene between his and Dylan O’Brien’s characters. Fans of…
What’s the worst thing that can come from a threesome? The storied history of cinematic threesomes and group sex rarely end well. Most often, relationships…
Leni Riefenstahl’s contribution to the evolution of film form cannot be overstated. It follows us like an apparition: look no further than Spielberg’s The Fabelmans…
Bing Liu ascribed a refreshingly unsentimental energy to the coming-of-age genre in his Oscar-nominated documentary, Minding the Gap. For his debut narrative feature, Preparation for…
Late in Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, as army veteran Bill (David Strathairn) and his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) visit an art gallery in their…
Writing in the second issue of the Southeast Asian film magazine MARG1N, Singaporean wunderkind Yeo Siew Hua lamented the incongruence between filmic and lived reality,…
Noémie Merlant’s The Balconettes begins with a corker of an opening shot. Predominantly taking place at adjoining apartment complexes in Marseille separated by a courtyard, the film…
Director David Mackenzie has had a fascinating career; in the past, we’d likely consider him a talented journeyman, the sort of solid professional who can…
Alex Russell’s debut feature, Lurker, is a mask-off exploration of rabid stan culture taken to extremes. When ascendant pop star Oliver (Archie Madekwe) walks into…
In all the consternation over the disappearance of the theatrical comedy, a trend hastened by post-Covid viewing habits that find comedies being largely relegated to…
“Trauma horror,” or “grief horror,” has become so ubiquitous that the subgenre has infiltrated even the most quotidian commercial horror films; it seems that the…
“Welcome to the new West,” in which teenage rodeo riders with undercuts listen to cloud rap and horses are sold on TikTok. In East of…
Almost as if it were made in response to John Krasinski’s IF, a saccharine fantasy about a motherless young girl who through magical contortions was able…
The story of Souleymane (Abou Sangare), a Guinean immigrant fighting for the right to work legally in France, has lately been told millions of times,…
“Arkhitekton” in Greek — “master builder” in English. The world that we humans have created around us is a world of stone; cold, stoic, though…
Dogs occupy a unique, almost sacred, space in our lives. They are not technically human, yet they embody qualities — loyalty, affection, intelligence — that…
You might not assume it, but the handsome, boyish, 19-year-old Leonardo (Manfredi Marini) at the center of Giovanni Tortorici’s refreshingly pulse-tapping debut, Diciannove, doesn’t feel…
Sometimes, all it takes is a platform. The rubble of an abandoned village can be a platform for a flag, the flag a symbol of…
Back in the winter, the film Companion used the premise of a young “couple” taking their first trip together to a secluded house in the countryside as…