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…
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…
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…
Jockey has an undeniable soulfulness, but suffers from its overly familiar narrative shape and beats. While each individual film should be judged according to its own…
Poupelle of Chimney Town is appealingly bugnuts in bursts, but by the end, the Garbage Man isn’t the only thing here that stinks. At this…
Cyrano is a mess, a shambles, a misfire, and also one of the most enjoyable films of the year. The glut of awards bait that…
Last and First Men is a artful, melancholy work that suggests the heights Jóhannsson might have reached, even as the final product can feel more like…
National Champions isn’t even good enough to make the playoffs. Adapted from the Adam Mervis play of the same name, Ric Roman Waugh’s National Champions follows…
More poodle than Wolf, Biancheri’s film is a frustratingly tame and conservative treatment of potentially fascinating material. Ten years ago, a film like Wolf would have…
The Humans isn’t a subtle film, but mostly impresses thanks to surprising formal chops from playwright-turned-director Stephen Karam. In a millennium relatively lacking in original movie…
Flee is inoffensive and sweet enough, but also a totally blunt object that fails muster much actual power under the influence of its overt messaging. Danish…
Try Harder! submits itself to a certain festival-friendly documentary texture rather than acting as a probing reflection of its sociopolitical environment. One of the many tensions…
Boiling Point resists the temptation toward food porn aestheticizing and instead builds a tightly-wound thriller from the anxiety of a working-class existence. Perhaps more so than…
The First Wave isn’t much more than an ornamental object, pointlessly self-assured in its distasteful aesthetic manipulations. The compartmentalization that contemporary documentary tends to engender —…
I Was a Simple Man is a wildly contradictory affair, rife with unresolved ideas and a deluge a thematic material that find little purchase. “Maybe we…
Long Promised Road’s focus on Wilson’s present day adds dimension to his story, adding resonant beats to a beloved old tune. Brian Wilson, the singer-songwriter…
Mother is both brutal and poetic, a contention with self and homeland, and an introduction to one of contemporary cinema’s most exciting voices. When Lemohang Jeremiah…
Uppercase Print mishmashes modes and can become a bit of a slog, but there’s enough formal playfulness to recommend it as a valuable addition to Jude’s…
Julia doesn’t cover a lot of new territory for the already initiated, but it’s still a delightful bio-doc made with plenty of love. In a society…