Without the director’s name attached to the credits, and without Alain Chabat’s happily nonchalant presence gracing the screen, one might not recognize Incredible But…
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…
Karmalink suffers from an inventive premise marred by uninspired execution and a lackadaisical rhythm. Jake Wachtel’s debut feature, on paper, ticks all the boxes, and…
My Donkey, My Lover & I might trade too liberally in cliché, but its escapist texture, palpable charm, and refusal to give in to…
Though its thematic threads begin to fray, Moloch remains a tantalizing evocation in primal fear that explores the allure behind myth and symbol. Idolatry has remained…
American Carnage is harmlessly fun and occasionally intriguing in its provocations, but it’s all predicated too closely on overly familiar touchstones. What’s the ideal…
Cryo hints early on at a future-facing work of exhilarating promise and peril, but is ultimately cloaked in a calcified slab of ice. Barrett Burgin’s…
Mad God is a profoundly unique work from Phil Tippett’s frenzied mind, a troubled, personal, and wholly original statement of the aching human heart. More…
Moneyboys looks good to the eye but sees nothing new, regurgitating the more inspired reveries of erotic ennui that directors like Tsai Ming-liang effortlessly…
In Front of Your Face is a spiritual awakening of a film, tweaking Hong’s particular tenor from the past decade into something even more…
Pleasure isn’t the first film to attack the intersection of capitalism, misogyny, and exploitation endemic to the porn industry, but it does so with…
Memory is a pleasantly riveting watch even as it remains a one-trick pony that’s too reliant on shallow deep state caricature. “If I’m here,…
Timelessness is a crucial thing of nature — where sediments erode and seas dry, nature par excellence remains unchanged, a totality to reckon with,…
There’s an appealing, lulling rhythm to Kogonada’s second feature, but few of its philosophical inquires are met with worthy responses. There is much to…
Ted K takes a potentially fascinating study and reduces it to a series of madman tropes and Wikipedia summarizing. The name Theodore Kaczynski has, for…
Italian Studies is a banal, ponderous work that fails to land on any interesting or governing thesis. Dislocation and dissociation lie at the heart…
Honorable Mention: Leave it to Sean Baker to direct poverty porn. After the much-celebrated The Florida Project, a fantastical if somewhat aestheticised survey of…
#21. Hong Sang-soo’s films generally fall somewhere between melodrama and farce, but to classify them as such is to no doubt essentialize them as…