After the first election of Donald Trump, I found myself shocked by the sudden rise of fascists and neo-Nazis freely speaking their tirades of racism and hate without fear of derision. That was eight yearsRead Full Review

If the last three films of Paul Schrader have been defined by his Travis Bickle-like protagonists – scribbling furiously in their notebooks while voiceover expresses their philosophical and existential crises – then Oh, Canada is him going MishimaRead Full Review

Writer-director Mike Leigh hasn’t been too shy to talk about about how difficult it has become for him to make movies these days. He mentions it in nearly any interview he gives, even during pressRead Full Review

Perhaps more than any other director working right now, Luca Guadagnino understands that fucking is one of humanity’s greatest motivators, dictating nearly every aspect of our lives, it’s consequences rippling forever through our relationships, ourRead Full Review

What are the foundations of an oppressive regime? Paranoia, complicity, fear. Whether you’re on the side of the oppressor or the oppressed, those three factors are always present. Mohammad Rasoulof’s latest film, The Seed of theRead Full Review

There are legacy sequels and then there is Gladiator II. Ridley Scott returns as director, as do several clips from the Best Picture winner of 2000, in case you were wondering about the connection. Scott’s ownRead Full Review

In the latest stage of Denzel Washington’s career, canonizing the work of August Wilson appears to be of great importance. Washington himself directed and starred in the 2016 adaptation of Fences, while drafting stage director GeorgeRead Full Review

They just gave Richard Curtis an honorary Oscar last weekend, and if he had directed Blitz, it would be the best movie that he ever made. But he didn’t make Blitz, Steve McQueen did, and there liesRead Full Review

Mati Diop’s Dahomey is a visually arresting and intellectually heady documentary about twenty-six pieces of art being returned to Africa. The items were seized by French soldiers in 1892 from what was then the nation ofRead Full Review

In the urban streets of Mumbai, people cram together in search of the life that modernity promises. But what if that promise is false? All We Imagine As Light is a tenderly told story about twoRead Full Review

The good thing about French artists across all mediums is that they attack projects with an intellectual rigor that instills in them a confidence that they can tackle any subject matter. This is also oneRead Full Review

What is the pain referenced in the title of A Real Pain? Our main characters are depressive, though they show it in completely different ways. They’re visiting Poland to partake in a days-long tour of Holocaust rememberence.Read Full Review

Claire Keegan’s fiction is riddled with silences pregnant with foreboding. The rural Irish settings of her books contain characters weathered into submission, accepting the things they cannot change, which is almost everything. In Small Things LikeRead Full Review

Three years between film projects feels like an eternity for Clint Eastwood. His prolific output both in front and behind the camera ran steady for sixty years up until 2021’s Cry Macho. At that point, ClintRead Full Review

I don’t think of this as a spoiler, but be aware: Near the end of No Other Land, there’s a title card that gives the audience a desperate, sinking feeling. At this point you’ve already watched ninety minutesRead Full Review

In the realms of “they just don’t make ’em like this anymore”, Conclave stands proud. A deeply engrossing and profoundly silly suspense film set in the Sistine Chapel, director Edward Berger shifts from the vast andRead Full Review

If Sean Baker wasn’t such an exceptional filmmaker, his interest in sex work as the narrative catalyst of his films would feel like an uncomfortable fetish. Since 2012’s Starlet, all of his films have dealt with sexRead Full Review

There were rumblings last year when darling indie distributor A24 put out into the trades that they were beginning to look into more mainstream, commercial projects. In a little over a decade, they’ve put out someRead Full Review

At just 30 years old, Saoirse Ronan has already established a sterling reputation as an actor who can “do anything”. Nominated as an adolescent for her precocious performance in Atonement, she’s only capitalized on her potential inRead Full Review

This year marks fifty years of Saturday Night Live on NBC, a live sketch comedy show that has survived dynastic political and cultural shifts, wild fluctuation in performance talent, and endless accusations of being “not funnyRead Full Review

It’s kind of a miracle that a film like A Different Man – an elliptical, analytical film the persistently prods it’s audience with moral and ethical questions – can also be such a compelling drama. OurRead Full Review

Will & Harper is a film going for a broad audience and delivering mass messaging. Its cause is righteous and its motivations pure. The movie’s premise is simple: two longtime friends, one of which hasRead Full Review

The journey of Megalopolis to the screen is astonishing. So much so it almost feels impossible that it would produce a mediocre film. Yet, here we are. Francis Ford Coppola called his shot in 2020, in anRead Full Review

Imagine, if you will, a movie for children that truly captures the full scope of everything that cinema has to offer, that doesn’t condescend to them with immature humor or overprotect them by hiding painful realities.Read Full Review

If there is one thing that stands out about the Cannes hit The Substance – well, apart from how gross it is – is it’s blistering rage. French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat does not have the inclinationRead Full Review

Filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier wears a lot of hats in Rebel Ridge. He’s the writer and director, the producer, and the editor. He’s certainly not the first person to do all of these things on his movie,Read Full Review

The implacable tone of an Azazel Jacobs film – comedies tinged with melancholy, where moods swing inconsistently and dollops of surreality pierce the heightened exterior – is a very difficult balancing act. So difficult, inRead Full Review

It’s been over thirty years since the last Victor Erice film. Considered to be among the greatest Spanish filmmakers of all time, his latest, Close Your Eyes, is only the fourth film he’s ever made. HisRead Full Review

Many try to recreate the arch whimsy of Hal Ashby, a director whose offbeat comedies feel wholly singular even with all the imitators that have followed him. Wes Anderson has spun that quirky sensitivity intoRead Full Review

When you get a movie like Sing Sing, which blends elements of narrative and documentary filmmaking, there can be a tension between the two disciplines as they fight against each other. It’s not always as seamlessRead Full Review

You don’t have to get too far into The Instigators before you realize just how low a priority it is for everyone involved. The movie stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, two actors whose canonical BostonRead Full Review

With a debut film, it’s easy to credit influence. You could watch India Donaldson’s Good One and notice that it’s all-natural set pieces and lived-in performances recall the earthy existentialism of Kelly Reichardt; or you may pegRead Full Review

Sean Wang’s Dìdi is a pretty standard coming-of-age indie dramedy. Think Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade meets Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap. The beats all have the familiarity of films you’ve seen from Rebel Without a Cause to Armageddon Time.Read Full Review

Twisters is something less than a remake and something more than a sequel. It carries over none of the characters from the 1996 film Twister, but its spirit – and structure – recalls the regality of theRead Full Review

Now that we’ve retired the idea of “elevated horror” – a popular expression in the early 10’s, when exciting filmmakers started excelling within the genre – what to make of a film like Longlegs? Released by Neon, the latestRead Full Review

In Green Border, director Agnieszka Holland is attempting to show us the wide swath of human behavior, from the inhumanly cruel to the generously kind, and everything in between. The film is set against the Polish-BelarusianRead Full Review

Yorgos Lanthimos achieving mainstream success in Hollywood probably seemed like a long shot if you were watching his 2009 film Dogtooth. That film, graphically violent and sexually explicit, got a miraculous Oscar nomination for Best International Feature atRead Full Review

In The Bikeriders, we have the return of Jeff Nichols, a director whose steady hand was behind several great films from the 2010s, including Take Shelter and Loving, his previous film. It’s been eight years since Loving, a movie thatRead Full Review

“Every second of my life is hell,” states Lacy, an eleven-year-old girl living with her mother, Janet. Earlier in Janet Planet – the directorial debut from Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker – Lacy calls Janet from aRead Full Review