Moral judgments in artwork tend to be tinged in shades of gray. This is sometimes expressed by citing Jean Renoir’s unofficial motto that “everyone has…
The Shameless feels very much like an art-sploitation entry from the mid-’90s, when directors thought that a frank depiction of lesbian desire, in and of…
There have been a number of “lockdown movies” since the outbreak of Covid, and most of them have been unfortunate affairs. While it’s true that…
In her previous film Wet Sand, Georgian director Elene Naveriani depicted a clash between the urbane, laid-back values of Tbilisi and the small-minded cruelty of…
One of the unique features of Emilia Beatriz’s new film barrunto is the omnipresence of sur- and subtitles, translating between Spanish and English, differentiating between…
Pierre Creton’s acclaimed 2017 documentary Va, Toto! was, among other things, an examination of the lives of elderly gay men in rural France, depicting their…
In 2000, Swedish director Roy Andersson premiered a film entitled Songs From the Second Floor. In a series of stationary camera set-ups, the film shows…
There’s really nothing wrong with The Permanent Picture, the debut feature from Catalan director Laura Ferrés. It features two skillful lead performances, is exceedingly well…
The sophomore film from Brazilian director André Novais Oliveira is a charming cinematic miniature that observes the unfolding of an ordinary day that potentially evolves…
The title of Woody Allen’s latest film translates as “a lucky break,” and that’s an apt enough way to characterize his ability to line up…
Prior to the premiere of The Old Oak at Cannes back in May, Ken Loach indicated that this would be his last feature film. Granted,…
Steve Buscemi’s directorial efforts have tended to focus on outsiders and castoffs. In his 1996 debut, Trees Lounge, the hopeless and downhearted congregate at a…
Achilles, the debut feature from Iranian director Farhad Delaram, is fairly unusual in a number of ways, often displaying a frankness regarding oppression that is…
Even in New York, there often seem to be more experimental films and videos out there than any single venue could ever hope to showcase.…
Some of the most unique and provocative films of recent times have been works we might call anthropological docudramas. Adopting and expanding the tradition of…
The names of the two main characters in Sara Summa’s debut feature appear rather ambiguously on the screen. Summa’s opening titles are handwritten in partial…
Chinese-Korean director Zhang Lu has been a bit of a slow burn in the West. Despite having directed 12 feature films since 2003, only a…
Dutch director Sacha Polak set a very high bar for herself with Hemel, her 2012 debut feature. Raw and at times agonizing, Hemel is a…
In his critical study “Discourse and the Novel,” Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin described narrative fiction as a process by which individual characters are defined…
Stan Brakhage’s 1958 film Anticipation of the Night could perhaps be likened to the late-19th and early-20th century tonal compositions of Arnold Schoenberg. In works…