It’s hard to discuss the nature of One-Percent Warrior without discussing the elephant in the room: Tak Sakaguchi. The film, directed by Yamaguchi Yudai, not only examines the nature of action films but also serves as a self-reflexive examination of Sakaguchi’s own career in the realm of Japanese action cinema, with turns in Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus, Sion Sono’s Why Don’t …
Twenty-four hours in one lawyer’s chaotic personal and professional life comes to a head in Selman Nacar’s sophomore feature. Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi) clocks in under 90 minutes, but the fullness of its action and the richness of its moral dilemmas, characterizations, and performances gives it the weight of many longer features. Canan …
The year is 2041, and death before one’s time does not necessarily mean the end of one’s life in Robert Hloz’s sleek sci-fi thriller. Restore Point takes its title from this new technology, managed in a central database in a nondescript metropolis of tarnished chrome (perhaps Prague in the future, though signs of its …
Love stories often rely on two characters being in the right place at the right time. Falling Into Place – a melancholic slow-burn love story from writer/director Aylin Tezel – follows in the timeless vein of the recent phenomena Normal People and One Day: the meeting of its characters may feel like destiny, but trials of time, …
If you’ve ever had the chance to make a movie, chances are your mind will be tormented during the development, production, and post-production stages. While watching the rushes or beginning to edit your film, your mind may not enjoy what’s unfolding and will quasi-force you to come up with new …
Content warning: How to Have Sex and this review touches on the subjects of sexual assault. Please approach both with caution if this topic is triggering for you. I heard very little about Molly Manning Walker’s debut film, How to Have Sex, so I went into it without many preconceptions. What I got …
Most of us can remember what it was like to be in grade school. There was always some Tommy likes Sally type of drama between pubescent boys and girls, but rarely were there incidents of any note that got the whole school on high alert. Most of those types of …
Ray Yeung’s elegant and tender film All Shall Be Well begins with protagonists Angie (Patra Au Ga Man) and Pat (Maggie Li Lin-Lin) existing happily together as an elderly lesbian couple, their bond silent, no unnecessary words spoken between them as they eat, get ready and walk along an autumnal path. They’ve been …
Mia McKenna-Bruce Gives a star-making performance in this quietly devastating drama. The first thirty minutes or so of Molly Manning Walker’s feature directorial debut, How to Have Sex, is highly disorienting. Walker zips through one scene after the next at a breakneck pace as she posits the story as a coming-of-age tale where a group …
In 2021, Claire Keegan’s novel on the Magdalene laundries Small Things Like These was released to acclaim, going on to be shortlisted for the famous Booker Prize. The turnaround between a book’s release and a film adaptation being made can vary, with some taking years to find their adaptive footing. In the case of Small …
Shoplifters is a 2018 Japanese language film directed, written, and edited by the amazing Hirokazu Kore-eda. The movie tells the story of a found family that relies on shoplifting to survive a life of poverty. One thing I love the most about Shoplifters is how it focuses on found families. This family is built …
Driving Madeleine (2022) is one of the most lovely films I’ve seen. Directed by Christian Carion, I haven’t seen many people talk about this movie, which makes me sad. The story of Madeleine Keller (Line Renaud), an older woman in Paris taking a last taxi ride thanks to driver Charles (Dany Boom) …
When it comes to paintings and art, I’m not a huge connoisseur. I can walk through an art gallery and appreciate most pieces from a technical level, but as far as anything I would purchase and own for my own enjoyment, I’m pretty indifferent to most things. A new animated …
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been a force to be reckoned with in Turkish cinema. In 2008, the filmmaker stunned everyone with his film Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun), for which he won the Best Director accolade at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da) made everyone …
Heartbreak High is returning to Netflix for season 2 in April, so I wanted to catch up with everything in season 1 before I watched the new episodes. This sexy, hilarious, and positively amazing Netflix reboot of the 1994 original Aussie series stole the hearts of adoring fans (including me) who …
Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) opened the doors for many short but effective action scenes where its protagonist had a set amount of time to get from point A to point B, only for them to be stuck in innumerable (and preposterous) situations that would slow them down. That’s also …
Brando with a Glass Eye, from filmmaker Antonis Tsonis, recently premiered at the Slamdance International Film Festival in Utah. In 2023, indie movies such as Past Lives, All of Us Strangers, and Anatomy of a Fall enthralled everyone with their superb storytelling that first had the world’s eyes on them at film festivals. All these films went …
Method acting goes to the extreme in the Greek drama Brando with a Glass Eye. Starring Yiannis Niarros in a star-making performance and written and directed by Antonis Tsonis, this is compelling drama just had its worldwide premiere at the Slamdance International Film Festival. “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you …
2024 has just begun, and yet we already have one hell of an action movie in Xavier Gens’ Mayhem! (Farang) and a brand-new star ready to show his skills to the world in Nassim Lyes. He portrays Sam, a recently freed convict who attempts to lay low and stay out of trouble by working a stable …
Rugby isn’t a sport we get much of here in America, but it’s one of the primary sports people enjoy watching in other countries. In the early 1970s, a group of rugby players from Uruguay boarded a plane from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby match. In the …