It’s not uncommon for an international film to obtain a different name in English-speaking markets, and that ends up being the case with Little Trouble…
A former editor-in-chief of mine once told me to write lightly about heavy matters, and heavily about light ones — an adage that easily applies…
Julia Jackman’s sophomore feature 100 Nights of Hero, adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name, has the shape and tone of a…
Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino is back on terra firma with La Grazia, his second film to premiere in less than 18 months, following on the heels…
With only two features — 2020’s Shithouse and 2022’s Cha Cha Real Smooth — and a short film under his belt, Cooper Raiff has already…
In Japan, where customs and a sturdy veneer of politeness greatly determine how people interact with one another, there is a strong emphasis on propriety,…
A visual motif that reoccurs throughout Rebecca Zlotowski’s latest film, A Private Life, is a spiral staircase. Beyond being chic and Parisian in the way…
“There comes a time when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun.” When Sara Jane Moore attempted and…
With all the upheaval in recent years, it seems like there is only one constant across the film industry: producing an independent animated feature is…
In the darkness of your room Your mother calls you by your true name You remember the faces the places the names You know it’s…
A Summer Tale A man has fallen: Argentine director Matías Szulanski’s A Summer Tale opens with a classic noir setup, one rendered gorgeously in Sunset…
A man has fallen: Argentine director Matías Szulanski’s A Summer Tale opens with a classic noir setup, one rendered gorgeously in Sunset Boulevard, Le Jour…
Action films might be the closest argument we still have for cinema as a universal language. It’s the most exportable genre, with stars and filmmakers…
Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale of Silyan begins with a recounting of an old Macedonian fable. Young Silyan, tired of backbreaking labor on the family farm,…
Misery isn’t a genre, but it’s a motif and an emotion that many independent and arthouse films seem to think is the defining state of…
In the opening title scroll of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, the Brazil of 1977 the film takes place in is announced as “a…
“The year you were born,” reads the opening title card to Palestine 36. It’s a daunting prescription that also invites the viewer into the story.…
Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is a sprawling, expansive work that functions simultaneously as familial remembrance, a documentary on Black intellectualism in the 20th and…
Rian Johnson brought the whodunnit into the 21st century, for better or worse. Knives Out revived it, imbuing the subgenre with the cozy vibes we…
In the 21st century, almost every film beyond a certain tax bracket is transnational in nature. Choose even a lower-budget indie film, ostensibly maintained in…