Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the most prolific directors in world cinema. This year, he premiered Chime at the 74th Berlinale. The French remake of his 1998 film, Serpent’s Path, went to the San Sebástian Film Festival. Concluding his year, Cloud debuted at the Biennale di Venezia, and Japan selected …
Animation is often seen as a genre for children, but that is because it is a genre for imagination. It’s a way of visually expressing stories that cannot be realistically or safely acted out. The stop-motion Memoir of a Snail, which has surprisingly won Best Film at this year’s London …
German-born director Nora Fingscheidt is in high-demand with her new film The Outrun starring Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan. I was lucky enough to speak with her about her new film, where we talk about the film’s themes on addiction and redemption, the power of Ronan, and stealing from the best films. …
Amy Liptrot’s breathtakingly poignant and unsparing memoir The Outrun has been acclaimed by critics and adored by readers across the world since its 2016 publication. Eight years later, the book loses none of its effect – the description of a very personal journey through familial mental illness, addiction, substance abuse, …
Mark Cousins is an Irish author and filmmaker. He is well-known for his literary work on film. His book The Story of Film is an introductory book in cinema history that is taught in many film courses. Besides serving as the premise to a 930-minute documentary in 2011, The Story …
Musical biopics consistently earn a reputation as a simple path to awards seasons and other accolades. In recent years, there have been examples in Bohemian Rapsody, Maestro, Elvis, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday, among others. It is a genre that has been repeating itself constantly and delivering mediocre …
Not much is known about Josef Mysliveček – the 18th-century composer at the center of writer and director Petr Václav’s lavish historical biopic The Bohemian – in the English-speaking musical world. It is known he was on good terms with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the two composers vied for recognition …
With On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, director and writer Rungano Nyoni returns to Cannes with an exciting sophomore feature after her successful feature film debut with I Am Not a Witch. Nyoni’s latest film competed in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, where the Zambia-born director won the …
Miguel Gomes won the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Grand Tour, which he co-wrote with Telmo Churro, Maureen Fazendeiro, and Mariana Ricardo, because it is an impossible film. It’s an epic pan-Asian journey best described as a mash-up of Wisconsin Death Trip and Apocalypse Now, …
In Hit Man, Richard Linklater’s latest film, the beloved director teams up with his star Glen Powell to write a script loosely based on a stranger-than-fiction news feature by legendary Texas Monthly reporter Skip Hollandsworth. It should be stressed that the real story, while remarkably gripping, does not go quite …
In an unprecedented move, the Cannes Film Festival jury awarded the Best Actress prize this year to the four actresses of Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. This is almost as startling as French writer-director Jacques Audiard making a primarily Spanish-language musical about …
Other reviews compare Anora to Pretty Woman, but this is a bad mistake. The world has moved on considerably since 1990, and these days, capitalism is now second to oligarchy. Oligarchs are people for whom life is to be lived without consequences because their incredible wealth means anything, or anyone, can be bought. …
Challengers was one of the most anticipated films of 2023, but it was postponed to the following year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, the enormous anticipation for Luca Guadagnino’s new movie (Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, Bones and All) never faded, especially considering it stars one of Hollywood’s biggest young celebrities of today, Zendaya (Dune: …
It is likely that 99% of the audience for Manhunt will push play on the first episode knowing roughly how the events play out. Monica Beletsky’s seven-part adaptation uses James L. Swanson’s book of the same name as a rough starting point to chronicle the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators after the …
Who doesn’t love a good revenge movie? Throughout the years, we’ve seen John Wick take out people for killing his dog, Robert McCall takes out people for an old friend, and Cassandra Thomas hunts down the men who sexually assaulted her best friend. The latest comes in the form of …
Dev Patel exploded into global consciousness in Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 British smash hit that opened the Western world’s eyes to the cinematic possibilities within India. Since then, Mr. Patel’s roles have largely been in Western films with an Indian setting – the two Marigold Hotel movies, the biopic Lion, and a few thrillers. But even in …
In 2023, we saw a movie based on the Holocaust taking the world by storm. Yes, we are talking about Jonathan Glazer’s haunting masterpiece, The Zone of Interest. It gave a very different perspective about an event that changed the world. Now, months later, we have another project revolving around the Holocaust. James Hawes’ One …
In 2020, Ray Yeung’s film Suk Suk (Twilight’s Kiss) was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards, with lead actor Tai-Bo taking home Best Actor. However, due to the pandemic, the film never found international audiences. Now, four years later, Yeung hopes to bring his next feature, All Shall Be Well, to more audiences this time around. The film …
Specific true-life stories demand the big-screen cinematic treatment. In some cases, those true stories can go on to earn Academy awards (Braveheart, Schindlers List). In other cases, some films can dishonor those stories’ legacies. Adapting those stories can be some of the most challenging films to make. The story of the …
Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer dominated the 96th Academy Awards, securing victory in seven categories. The film claimed the coveted title of Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan earned the Best Director award. Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor, and Robert Downey Jr. received the accolade for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, Oppenheimer triumphed in technical categories, winning trophies for Cinematography, Film …