This is a banner for a review of the film Hair, Paper, Water... (Tóc, giấy và nước...). Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Tóc, giấy và nước…’ Film Review: Trương Minh Quý and Nicolas Graux on the Differences in Generations

The Vietnamese director Trương Minh Quý was one of the highlights of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with his film Viet and Nam. The film had an extensive festival season, including a main slate slot in the New York Film Festival and a Wavelength selection in the Toronto International Film …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of Fantasy. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Fantasy’ Film Review: Kukla’s Surreal Social Drama is One of 2025’s Strongest Debuts

A competitive entry in the Filmmakers of the Present program of the Locarno Film Festival’s 78th edition, Fantasy, the feature directorial debut from Slovenian musician and director Kukla, at times credited as Katarina Bogdanović, is a hypnotic, surreal expansion of the story the filmmaker initially sketched in her award-winning short …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of How to Shoot a Ghost. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘How to Shoot a Ghost’ Review: The Afterlife in Athens with Charlie Kaufman

There has been a disturbing recent trend of setting stories in the afterlife, with the position that growth and change is really only possible after you are dead. This removes our agency, and posits that our situation is more important than our free will. This is especially aggravating when you …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of Frankenstein. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Frankenstein’ Movie Review: An Instant Classic, A Wonderful Horrible Joy (Venice)

Frankenstein is a masterpiece, an instant classic and a complete and utter triumph. It sticks very close to the source material while managing to be something fresh and new, it maintains its historic setting while never forgetting the current moment, and it all hangs on two extraordinary central performances that …

Read more

This is an image for a review of the Locarno film Tabi to hibi. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Tabi to Hibi’ Film Review: Shô Miyake’s Golden Leopard Winner is a Pulsating Drama About Existential Solitude and the Limits of Language

An incommunicable solitude pulsates at the heart of Tabi to Hibi — also titled Two Seasons, Two Strangers — the bifurcated drama from Japanese writer-director Shô Miyake, who just won a career-defining Pardo d’Oro (Golden Leopard) for the movie, following its world premiere in the Concorso Internazionale section of this …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the Locarno film A Balcony in Limoges. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘A Balcony in Limoges’ Film Review: A Subtle, Slippery Morality Tale (Locarno)

Premiering in the Filmmakers of the Present competition of the recently concluded Locarno Film Festival, A Balcony in Limoges, French writer-director Jérôme Reybaud’s feature follow-up to his debut 4 Days in France (2016), is the kind of movie that one might describe as deceptive, or unforeseen at the very least, …

Read more

‘Yakushima’s Illusion’ Film Review: Vicky Krieps’ Best Performance Since Corsage

Naomi Kawase is arguably the most well-known Japanese female director internationally. Previously, she competed in the Festival de Cannes competition five times with Shara in 2003, The Mourning Forest in 2007, Hanezu in 2011, Still the Water in 2014, and Radiance in 2017. Her 2020 feature, True Mothers, appeared on …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of Le Lac. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Le Lac’ Film Review: An Unconventional Exploration of Grief from Fabrice Aragno (Locarno)

The Swiss director Fabrice Aragno is known for his collaborations with the cinematic genius Jean-Luc Godard. He worked as a cinematographer in Godard’s films ” Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, and Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. He produced Godard’s last Cannes competition entry, The Book …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the film Blue Film. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Blue Film’ EIFF Review: A Fearless Look at Desire and Taboo

From the title of Blue Film, writer and director Elliott Tuttle’s feature debut suggests titillation. This unbelievably challenging work, however, is something far more slippery, enigmatic, and subversive than simple thrills within the milieu of modern sex work. Indeed, the on-screen sex scenes are brief and shot with a curious …

Read more

This is a banner for an interview with Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie of the Edinburgh film Dead Lover. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

Interview: Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie talk smell-o-vision and ‘Dead Lover’

Toronto-based filmmaker Grace Glowicki is no stranger to the bizarre. Recently she, along with husband Ben Petrie, starred in the schlocky, romantic gothic horror Honey Bunch which premiered at Berlin in 2025. Her feature debut, Tito, was an offbeat comedy where she herself played an agoraphobic man whose world is …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the Edinburgh movie Grow. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Grow’ Film Review: A Story Steeped in British Traditionalism and Pumpkins

From John McPhail, the Glaswegian director behind cult favourite Anna and the Apocalypse, comes Grow, a delightfully daft and incredibly charming family film that follows Charlie (newcomer Priya-Rose Brookwell), a young girl with an almost supernatural instinct for horticulture on a mission to grow the world’s biggest pumpkin.  After some …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the movie I Fell in Love with a Z Grade Director in Brooklyn. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

Fantasia 2025: ‘I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn’ Film Review: A Lovely Ode to Rediscovering Artistic and Romantic Desire

Winner of the Bronze audience prize for Best Asian Feature at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival, I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn is a captivating romantic comedy that functions as yet another endearing paean to independent horror cinema from Japanese cult filmmaker Kenichi Ugana, following …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the Edinburgh film On the Sea. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘On the Sea’ Film Review: The Perils and Promise of Masculinity (EIFF)

The prison of British masculinity is explored in On The Sea, the latest film from writer and director Helen Walsh. On the outside, Jack (Barry Ward) has a stable, traditional life. He has been married to Maggie (Liz White) for decades, and they expected to raise their son Tom (Henry …

Read more

This is a banner for an interview with Jody Wilson, director of The Bearded Girl. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

Fantasia 2025: Interview with Jody Wilson of ‘The Bearded Girl’

Canadian filmmaker Jody Wilson’s feature debut The Bearded Girl centers on a sideshow in Paradise County, where Cleo (Anwen O’Driscoll) is expected to follow in her mother, Lady Andre’s (Jessica Paré) footsteps and continue the proud tradition of bearded women. However, Cleo’s mother remains a controlling influence over their sideshow …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the Locarno film Solomamma. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Solomamma’ Film Review: A Single Mother Finds A Second Coming of Age in Janicke Askevold’s Soberly Riveting Drama (Locarno)

2025 is slowly turning into a banner year for Norwegian cinema, not least because of the Grand Prix acclaim of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, already touted as one of “The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far),” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not long prior to that, Nina …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the film Dry Leaf. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Dry Leaf’ Film Review: Alexandre Koberidze’s Gorgeously Fierce Neo-Noir Odyssey

Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze made a splash in the arthouse circuit when he competed in the 2021 Berlin Film Festival with his What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?. MUBI acquired the film and released it as one of the original releases during the expansion of the …

Read more