The Cathedral is D’Ambrose’s portrait of the artist as a young man, a bracingly vigorous work and a precise survey of emotional turmoil. After a…
Saloum is an absolute blast, packed with pleasant genre surprises and announcing a major new filmmaker in Jean Luc Herbulot. Part of the joy…
El Gran Movimiento offers a thoroughly idiosyncratic and elliptical approach to the city symphony, one rooted in character and in which the spirit of…
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…
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…
Clara Sola is a bold, confrontational work, perhaps a bit too blunt in its symbolism, but carried through by Chinchilla Araya’s raw, enigmatic performance. The…
Terence Davies’ Benediction is beautifully melancholic work, one that bursts benevolently onto the screen with immense feeling. The cinema of veteran English auteur Terence…
Neptune Frost lacks for coherence, but remains an oddity worth seeking out on the strength of its formal expressions and bold exploration of ideas.…
Vortex is as viscerally bracing as Noe’s previous efforts, but here also cut through with a new, impressive level of restraint. It’s become somewhat…
Real-life subtext melds effortlessly with easy, endearing comedy in Panah Panahi’s Hit the Road. Sam Levinson, Jaden Smith, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maya Hawke, and Bryce Dallas…
Red Rocket is an intentionally bad vibes experience, and while the film’s messaging is resolutely simplistic, it’s all kept afloat by Simon Rex’s year’s-best performance.…
Prayers for the Stolen is blunt to the point of crassness and riddled with manipulative cliché. Making its way over to NYFF after picking up…
To make an effective political film, one frequently turns to documentary as the best medium for truth; it’s hard to deny in exemplars of…
In Barbarian Invasion, retired actress Moon Lee (Tan Chui Mui, who also directs), not to be confused with actual retired martial arts actress Moon…
Freda, the Creole-language narrative feature debut of actor-director Gessica Généus, is a film that hinges on a dilemma, a fraught existential crisis demanding resolution: whether…