Sharp Stick is a more specific work than much of what Denham has produced in the last decade, but it’s hindered by an awkward, shaggy structure…
Though frequently overt in its commentary, Medusa still enthralls thanks to its formally and functionally immersive world-building. Set in an alternate Brazil where evangelical conservatism has all…
Ryan: I originally intended to open this second part of our correspondence with a scene I thought was in this stretch from episodes five to…
OK, so things don’t really vanish anymore: even the most limited film release will (most likely, eventually) find its way onto some streaming service or…
Ali and Ava is a more formally restrained work for Barnard, but one imbued with limitless compassion and hardscrabble authenticity. Clio Barnard’s 2010 debut film…
Hypochondriac is but the latest elevated horror project to arrive, spinning its wheels for 90 minutes without anything new to say. Fans of elevated horror,…
Karmalink suffers from an inventive premise marred by uninspired execution and a lackadaisical rhythm. Jake Wachtel’s debut feature, on paper, ticks all the boxes, and then…
Accepted doesn’t always handle its myriad threads with equal deftness, but the film is movingly carried through on the strength of its individual stories and…
Alone Together is but the latest reminder that Covid-inspired relationship tales reached their expiration date long ago. Relationship dramas revolving around the Covid pandemic and…
Mr. Malcolm’s List isn’t the most chemistry-rich Regency rom-com to come along, but its modern undertones and strong ensemble work make it a recommendable entry…
The Road to Galena delivers little more than reductive bumpkin caricatures and well-trod narrative arcs. The Road to Galena, the feature debut from writer-director Joe…
Blue Island is a similarly interrogative work to the director’s Yellowing, but here taking on a grander and more experimental form. Chan Tze-woon’s Yellowing was…
Swallowed Things have been building to this moment for a while, but ever since films like Julia Ducournau’s Raw crossed over to find a mainstream…
In some respects, My Small Land is a film about easily perceived material differences. Sarya (Lina Arashi) holds herself at a distance from others; she…
Daigo Matsui’s Just Remembering features two characters who love Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth. At least, they love the first section and, specifically, Winona Ryder’s…
Things have been building to this moment for a while, but ever since films like Julia Ducournau’s Raw crossed over to find a mainstream audience…
The American cinema of the 1970s is a deep, deep well of intersecting delusion and pyrrhic victories, though hindsight has made it so that’s it…
We Met in Virtual Reality is a formally fascinating and emotionally rich documentary that proves far more humanist than its tech-centric tagline might suggest. Joe…
A Love Song has a rustic, unadorned quality that is easy to appreciate, but its calculated modesty only does so much to distinguish it from…
For a brief period of time in the early-to-mid 2000s, there was perhaps no more exciting international director than Bela Tarr. Advocates like Jonathan Rosenbaum,…