It would be naïve to assume a documentary featuring a revolutionary subject would de facto pursue fidelity with the revolution. No artistic mandate exists requiring…
The profane and the sacred prove fairly close in Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven. One need look no further than the premise of the…
Passenger starts with a prayer. “Carry me safely to my destined place, like you carried Christ in your close embrace,” ends the prayer to St.…
Thanks in part to a shimmering new 4K restoration, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Speed Racer is enjoying a newfound moment in the spotlight. Originally released…
Yukiko Sode’s slice-of-life epic All the Lovers in the Night clocks in at just under two and a half hours, but feels far more alive…
Watching La Perra, the new film from Dominga Sotomayor, one may be reminded of those pet adoption bumper stickers that read “who rescued who?” In…
In 2021, a residential area in the southside of Glasgow, Scotland, exploded into an impromptu stand-off against police and deportation officers. Early on May 13,…
When a documentary’s primary source material and subject of inquiry is revealed to be vlog content, YouTube channels, and other ephemera of pre- and early-aughts…
The Quran states that “whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of humanity.” The Station, the debut feature from Yemeni…
For the first time in seven years, there’s a new Star Wars movie in theaters, and somehow it’s up for debate if anyone actually cares…
Maddening as it is that the middlebrow (leaning low) fodder of yesteryear continues to serve as a lightning rod for conservative megacorporations eager to cash…
For the first time in his feature career, Cristian Mungiu has shifted his critical gaze from Romania to its western neighbors. A Cannes luminary par…
As landmark movies go, Lisandro Alonso’s 2001 debut Freedom could hardly have been less fitting. A documentary/fiction hybrid chronicling one day in the life of…
The very best instances of allegory are those that allow themselves to be completely ignored. Too often, an artist only pretends to be interested in…
Toward the beginning of Too Many Beasts, aging farmer Raoul Brun (Jean-Louis Coulloc’h) intentionally runs over several large boars, packs their bodies in the trunk…
By way of disclaimer, some years back I collaborated with one of the lead organizers of Spectacle Theater’s STRUCTURE. WAVE. YOUTH. CINEMA. (SWYC) series (and…
Long before Russia commenced its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022, preeminent cineast Andrey Zvyagintsev already saw dark clouds gathering over his…
The gifted prodigy who’s gone to seed is a time-honored trope that will never leave us because it flatters both filmmakers and actors. A streetwise…
Sometimes the first shot of a film tells you enough to know you’re in the hands of a great director. Arthur Harari’s The Unknown —…
Saccharine was inevitable. In the Western world, there’s never been a worse time to have a body. Navigating the Internet is an exercise in polarity…
To fully appreciate — or even comprehend — a project like Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe would require extensive foreknowledge of…