In João Canijo’s Berlinale competition film Bad Living, long shots are composed so precisely that their motivations frequently don’t become clear for minutes —…
Since moving from 16mm to digital nearly fifteen years ago, James Benning’s films have become more and more stringent, foregoing surface incident in favor…
Subtlety isn’t Singaporean cinema’s strong suit, as year after year of mainstream slop, indie darlings, and enfant terrible flops (having largely been banned back…
The idea that cinema is dying, or perhaps already died, is certainly popular in a time when digital spectacle has all but consumed any…
A young woman from Tokyo finds herself in a strange town. In the beginning, she is looking for a tourist site, the ruins of…
“I have a secret life. You’re looking at me but what you see is not what I am.” Who was Donna Summer? This is…
The first feature from Chinese filmmaker Wu Lang, Absence shares a title and cast with the director’s second short film, which played at Cannes…
There is little build-up to the opening of Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s latest thriller, #Manhole. Within the first five minutes, unfortunate salesman Shunsuke Kawamura (Yûto Nakajima)…
Laugh now, but back in the 1950s, the CIA would pay top dollar for any hint of mind control technology, leading to the mass…
Veerle Baetens’ debut feature When It Melts is one of those films that is difficult to discuss without giving the entire thing away, not…
As we move ever further into the streaming age, the question of what exactly constitutes a film continues to blur. No longer tethered to…
The tenets of toxic masculinity are tried and true, displayed in manifold methods of patriarchal oppression, and specifically in conjunction with a process of…
Xavier Dolan’s career may have began with a rush of praise, but it seems that after a certain point, everyone just grew tired of…
When we meet Algee Smith’s Brandon in Thembi L. Banks’ feature debut, Young. Wild. Free., he’s already beset by external stressors. A high school…
Glorimar Marrero Sánchez’s feature debut opens in a quixotic fashion, offering little exposition and dropping viewers straight into a scene of Noelia (Isel Rodríguez)…
As the first Pakistani film to premiere at Cannes, Saim Sadiq’s Joyland — which also won the Un Certain Regard Jury prize and the…
Expanding on the layered, accelerated style first developed in her shorter films, Fox Maxy arrives at Sundance firing on all cylinders. Gush marks a…
At its heart, Patricia Ortega’s MAMACRUZ radiates a tender and thoughtful warmth for its sympathetic main character, a woman whose womanhood has, after decades…