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 …

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‘Americana’ Movie Review: The Weight of Tradition in a Modern Western Key

Preparing to watch a contemporary western is always an exercise in expectation and curiosity. The genre, so often revisited, can be both fertile ground for reinvention and a minefield of clichés. Tony Tost, in his first feature as writer and director, takes on this risky premise with Americana, a hybrid …

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‘Smoke’ Review: A Messy Mini-Series with Great Performances

Author and writer Dennis Lehane has carved a niche in the crime and thriller genres. His credits include novels such as Live by Night and Gone Baby Gone, as well as screenplays like 2014’s underrated film The Drop. Lehane has even dipped his toe into television work with series such …

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‘As Estações’ Film Review: A Poetic Documentary Portraying Alentejo

The French director Maureen Fazendeiro is known for her short documentary Sol Negro (Black Sun), a recitation of Henri Michaux‘s poem. After that, she joined the Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, co-writing his Cannes award-winning Grand Tour, and co-directing the 2021 film, Diários de Otsoga (The Tsugua Diaries). Now, she directs …

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‘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 …

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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 …

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‘Night Always Comes’ Review: Vanessa Kirby Shines in a Film That Fumbles Its Potential

When Night Always Comes opens with news reports and radio shows hammering the housing crisis – wages too low to cover rent and basic expenses, evictions looming – the promise is clear: a direct plunge into a reality that pushes people to the edge. As the protagonist heads out to …

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‘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 …

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‘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 …

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‘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 …

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‘Nobody 2’ Movie Review: Bob Odenkirk Returns in an Action Sequel That Knows Its Audience

When Nobody (2021) premiered, it was received as a sort of distant cousin to John Wick, but with its own identity rooted mainly in the unexpected charisma of Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and the spot-on balance between action, violence, and humor. Four years later, the sequel arrives under the …

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