Fresh isn’t actually all that fresh. From a narrative perspective, Fresh is a nearly impossible film to write about without beelining straight to spoilers. There’s…
Dear Mr. Brody is powerful in spurts and conceived of in fascinating terms, but Maitland struggles to reconcile his disparate threads into a cohesive whole. Keith…
There’s an appealing, lulling rhythm to Kogonada’s second feature, but few of its philosophical inquires are met with worthy responses. There is much to savor…
Arnaud Desplechin’s third feature, Esther Kahn, premiered to mixed reviews at the 2000 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Originally clocking in at 152 minutes, the…
Asking for It is a cheap and muddled affront to the women it seeks to foreground. Asking for It, the debut feature from writer-director Eamon O’Rourke,…
Great Freedom is a tender celebration of unconventionality, in all its complex and varied incarnations. Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code enacted…
A Madea Homecoming offers conclusive evidence that Perry’s work as a (melo)dramatist is, at this point, far superior to his comedic endeavors. With 47 directorial and…
Mother Schmuckers is sub-John Waters more-busting that fails to understand the essential appeal of its inspirational touchstone. American audiences encountering the Belgian gross-out comedy Mother Schmuckers…
The Batman is an entirely overlong and overextended affair, but otherwise delivers gorgeous imagery, thoughtful mythos, and playfully brooding emo inflection. The Dark Knight is moodier…
Rock Bottom Riser is a work which regrettably shoehorns haptic political messaging into its otherwise incredible footage. Located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean — a body…
Huda’s Salon uses genre trappings as a pretext to gesture at loose connections to reality rather than meaningfully developing anything. The crucial difference between a…
If one were to name the auteur who most avidly committed to the integrity of mise-en-scène and who was always truly passionate in polemical defenses…
Servants is a brutal, efficient affair, unconventional in its dramaturgy but landing with considerable force. Director Ivan Ostrochovský’s Servants begins with a cryptic, murky sequence…
The Desperate Hour is such a shrug of a film that it isn’t even worth considering the potentially offensive exploitation of its conceit. With The…
Butter is an irresponsible, wholly offensive exploitation of serious mental illness concerns. On its surface, new teen dramedy Butter seems like the kind of film…
Ghosts of the Ozarks tees up a potentially fascinating horror-western premise, but much of its appeal dissipates as its back half becomes frustratingly obvious. There’s…
Poly Styrene doesn’t do much formally, but its personal stakes and unflinching candor still manage to resonate. Making a documentary about any icon is a…
Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop rides its quaint aesthetic all the way to feeling already dated. On paper, Brad Watson’s Miss Willoughby and the…
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…
Potato Dreams of America is an uneven, arrhythmic effort that undermines its early promise with a blunted second half. If Marvel’s Wandavision has left you…