Taurus is ultimately too informed by MGK’s real-life persona and proves aimless as an attempt to contend with the great generational tragedy of its subject matter.…
“A nation that doesn’t know its past, has a dull present and a future shrouded in fog.” So opens Alon Schwarz’s newest participatory documentary film,…
Corridors of Power is rooted in ideological ambivalence and provides a platform for imperialist voices to design history around their perspective. Israeli documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh,…
2nd Chance operates in the same unappealing blunt-force register as Bahrani’s narrative works. Ramin Bahrani, once again, has something to say about the state of the…
Return to Seoul is a film guided by its director’s steady hand, boasting a generous script and tethered to a fantastic lead performance. A hurried glance…
Four Samosas cribs too liberally without any understanding of how to integrate such influences. At the risk of seeming belligerent or otherwise unfair, Ravi Kapoor’s sophomore…
Anyone who has seen enough music documentaries probably has a pretty good idea of what The Return of Tanya Tucker would be before going in…
Bad Axe is a tender and heartfelt portrait of a family, town, and nation in crisis. In light of an unprecedented global vaccine effort, the…
Actual People captures actual truths about the ways that young people behave. Kit Zauhar follows up her promising short film, Helicopter, with an equally talky debut…
Nothing Lasts Forever is a zippy but patient task-taking doc on the ills, myths, and hypocrisies of the global diamond industry. In 1929, the Surrealist painter…
Meet Me in the Bathroom’s winnowed focus turns what could have been a vibrant behind-the-scenes doc into more conventional, surface-skimming fare. Meet Me in the…
Utama is undeniably one of the year’s most gorgeous works of image-making, but its narrative and thematic expressions are less consistently impressive. Over the past two…
Call Jane can come across as tidy and overly satisfied, but Nagy’s facility with actors and visuals keeps things proceeding with assurance. Call Jane, the directorial…
Holy Spider fails to execute the tonal mastery needed for its material and is too self-conscious to occupy any pulpier territory. For approximately one year between…
Given its subject matter, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power proves ironically reductive a thesis on art and sexual politics. While made largely in response to the #MeToo Movement…
Aftersun evokes the rending nostalgia of Terence Davies, lensing a father-daughter story through quiet, melancholic remembrance. Memories are fragile; they weather with time, fray around the…
All That Breathes offers a cogent diagnosis of our climate change predicament, suggesting a tentative hope for the future while recognizing the untenability of the…
In the Court of the Crimson King thrives as an unbiased tribute film, keen in its documentation of the professional and personal spheres of various…
Peter Hedges brings his typical schtick to The Same Storm, getting off to a rocky start but ultimately getting somewhere heartwarming enough. Is there any filmmaker…
God’s Creatures works best in its embrace of character interiority, but a tendency toward stacking the deck with symbol and portent leaves little nuance to reckon…