Even if he wasn’t dying from colon cancer, André Ricciardi would make a fascinating subject for a documentary. Tony Benna’s André Is an Idiot shows this clearly by giving us a look not just at his disease, but at the totality of his life, making this film a joyful celebration …
In 2023, the Brazilian documentary veteran, Eliza Capai, released her Incompatível com a Vida (Incompatible with Life). Despite being a mix of talking head with diary documentary, it is an utterly personal telling of her experience with the traumatic loss of her baby in her womb. The director tells her …
It’s not so much that Jaripeo is therapy – a reductive way to think about documentary, especially when the director is documenting their own experiences – but Jaripeo is maybe the first time some of its participants have ever been asked to think about the things they do. This is, …
Please forgive me for saying the most surprising things about Twinless are twofold: it is unusually funny, with a very clear sense of how people interact in amusing ways with each other, with an equal and equally unusual sense of danger. Most of this centers around the plot twists which …
I think we can blame the English royal family. When TV shows like Succession, The Righteous Gemstones and Yellowstone decide to examine the interpersonal struggle for power within an unbelievable wealthy family, they’ve all worked from the same template: tyrannical father and absent or dead mother with three sons and …
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die takes the worst nightmares of the current moment and turns them into comedy, but the kind of comedy where if you didn’t laugh you’d cry. This is done in the lighthearted comic blockbuster style best described as a mash-up where 1990s French horror-comedy Delicatessen …
I’ll admit that before sitting down to watch Crime 101, the name of Bart Layton (American Animals) wasn’t immediately familiar to me. However, in the world of cinema, there are certain combinations of factors that act as an irresistible magnet for any cinephile, and this project had them all. A …
The first series in a name chronology series from super-producer Ryan Murphy follows the tragic romance of JFK’s son, John F Kennedy, and publicist Carolyn Bessette. Based on Elizabeth Beller’s book Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, the limited series charts the couple’s whirlwind romance, marriage …
This Chilean-Argentinian coproduction is a Chilean story but was filmed in Argentina for reasons its subject matter makes obvious. The military coup in Chile in 1973 that started with the murder of Salvador Allende brought about (speaking with understatement here) such a traumatic time to the nation that the after-effects …
The creative team behind Derry Girls returns with the comedy thriller, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. The show marks a darker shift for creator, writer, and executive producer Lisa McGee, with fans of her previous work likely expecting something darker. After the death of their school friend, flighty …
Talk about melodrama! It is not so much that this adaption of Wuthering Heights goes to eleven, but that this version of Wuthering Heights starts at eleven and keeps going and going, and going, without losing its momentum for a moment. This over-the-top depiction of secret and dangerous passion makes …
Whenever a new project from Sony Pictures Animation hits theaters, I’ll admit my heart rate picks up just a bit. Whether it’s the visual revolution started by the Spider-Verse franchise or the emotionally resonant storytelling in The Mitchells vs. the Machines, my expectations for any animation from this studio have …
In 1976, the genius puppeteer Jim Henson released his masterpiece The Muppets Show. Despite early versions of the characters in decades before, such as Kermit the Frog in a short-form production in the 1950s, the TV show popularized Kermit and his gang. Again, Henson crystallized himself in the American popular …
Unlike the experience I had yesterday with Mercy, I walked into the theater to watch Send Help with considerably high expectations. Not just because of the positive reception circulating among most of my colleagues and the general public, but because the prospect of seeing a master like Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) …
Entering a movie theater with low expectations is a dangerous yet necessary exercise. Two weeks after its release, I finally sat down to watch Mercy, and I couldn’t escape the wave of negative reception that’s been flooding the internet. That said, I’ll confess I held onto a sliver of hope. …
2025 has been a strong year of Stephen King adaptations. These include It: Welcome to Derry, The Running Man, and The Life of Chuck. One of the darkest would have to go to the adaptation of his story The Long Walk directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games franchise). Set …
The representation of queerness in the past decade on TV has found itself on an uptick. Shows like Heartstopper, Queer Eye, Modern Family, and Schitt’s Creek have led the charge in normalising the existence of queer people on television, and therefore in life. Despite the challenges the queer characters face …
The legendary filmmaker Robert Flaherty made history with his documentary Nanook of the North, a pioneering film, considered the first non-fiction work. Despite the controversies and claims of its stagings, it establishes the medium’s interest in the study of the human organization and the different cultures. A century later, we …
It’s only January but Scottish documentary Everybody to Kenmure Street is a very serious contender for best documentary of the year. It’s rare to feel a documentary so firmly plant the seed of possibility in the mind of its audience. But there are three things audiences need to know in …
In 2022, the Academy-nominated documentary Filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) impressed the audiences with a sonic experiment in his 32 Sounds. Mixed as an experiment to watch at the theater and scenes where the sound echoes differently in each soundbar, it illustrates how, underneath the technical experimentation, Green’s films …