Directed by the Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, Limonov: The Ballad premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where the film competed for the Palme d’Or in May 2024. Serebrennikov also co-wrote the name with Ben Hopkins and Pawel Pawlikowski. The film is based on Limonov, a 2011 book by Emmanuel Carrére …
Someday, a movie in which a man defeats an attacking spaceship with a single punch will get a negative review, but today is not that day. Kalki 2898 AD is not only the most expensive Indian movie ever made, but also the first in a planned series of movies – …
For cinephiles like me, the vast majority of films watched throughout the year don’t need specific reasons to “convince” me to visit the theater or turn on the TV on one of the streaming channels. That said, there’s always a standout element in the movie to be watched that raises …
I can’t tell if Cora Bora is satirical, ironic, or sincere. That’s a problem. You know the type of humor: it’s funny in Portland or LA, but somehow loses its charm anywhere else. If you think that embodying and ever-so-slightly playing up the most annoying parts of Gen-Zers is funny, …
Land of Women is the new dramedy from Apple TV+, drawing inspiration from the Sandra Barneda novel La Tierra de la Mujeres. It’s a multigenerational story led by Eva Longoria as Gala, whose life has completely come undone in the clink of a wine glass. Apple TV+ has another well-balanced comedy on its …
It’s a tale as old as art – male characters do stuff, and female characters react to male characters doing stuff – but it’s rarely taken to such an extreme as in The Bikeriders. Kathy (Jodie Comer, more on whom later) quite literally narrates the story of the Chicago biker …
Disney’s newest sports-inspiration film, Young Woman and the Sea, may not be the most artistic film ever made, but it knows what it’s supposed to be doing and does it well. Directed by Joachim Rønning, the biopic follows Trudy Ederle (Daisy Ridley), a New Yorker born in 1905, as she …
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In Mira Shaib’s Beirut-set drama, Arzé, the narrative framework that is imitated is that of Bicycle Thieves, a pantheonic piece of Italian neorealism. Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 classic follows a father and his son searching for a stolen bike, a symbol of means …
Four episodes into The Acolyte and it has attracted the worst kinds of hate for all the wrong reasons. Stupid nitpicking comments about fire in space, an ongoing series that hasn’t revealed its mystery, and now we have a flying Sith lord that people are mad about – if anything, it shows …
This is a spoiler free review of the first four episodes of House of the Dragon Season 2. The legacy of Game of Thrones was fascinating to watch unfold. What once started as an arguably revolutionary piece of television ended on a sour note. That note involved the series ending …
At the 2023 AFI Film Festival, I saw Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders and fell in love with it. After the festival, Searchlight sold the film to Focus Features, and it is in theaters as of June 21st. Heading into the movie a second time, I wondered if it would ignite …
Within Doctor Who, ‘two-parters’ have become commonplace, a trademark of 2005’s reboot series. Some are renowned for being fan-favorite episodes – The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances – while some are a lot less beloved; see The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang. But while some don’t hit the heights of others as a …
Do you remember about the friendships you had when you were young? Most of us don’t. But there’s one person that we all remember or even have with us since the day we got to know about the idea of a friendship. Although we tend to meet new people as …
I learned about the Norwegian film Spermageddon through a friend of mine. While discussing films we’d recently watched and giving each other recommendations, she exclaimed, “I watched this animated movie about sperm!” As she went on to describe the film as a comedy-musical my interest peaked, and I immediately sought it out …
I have been a fan of The Boys since the jump. I love the way that it skewers Hollywood. I love the way that it skewers performative wokeness. I love the way that it skewers right-wing fanaticism. And, yeah, the voyeur in me loves the over-the-top violence and sexual content. …
Musicians have a long history of migrating from recording albums to acting in pictures. We could appoint Cher in Moonstruck (1987), which gave her an Academy Award, Barbra Streisand with Funny Girl (1968), which also gave her the Academy Award, and Eminem with 8 Mile (2003). It is a media …
Russell T Davies is considered one of the greatest British writers of a generation. He has written what are considered some of the greatest TV shows ever, including shows like Queer As Folk and It’s A Sin. In 2005, Davies was tasked with rebooting the long-running sci-fi show Doctor Who. …
Tiger Stripes can be described as Carrie meets Turning Red, which unfairly minimizes the courageous central performance from young Zafreen Zairzal. But even with a fresh setting – an all-girls’ middle school in the Malaysian jungle – there’s regrettably no freshness in the plot. That makes this only a frustrating …
In the 20th century, Dr. Erich Lindemann changed the medical understanding of loss through his Grief Work theory. In this theory, he stated that the way of overcoming the death of a loved one and regaining oneself is the emancipation from the bondage of the deceased, readjustment of the environment …
The Acolyte episode three, Destiny, takes things back to the past and the childhood of Mae and Osha and looks at how the tragic incident that consumed their family and separated them, driving them apart – how it happened. It’s brutal; Mae’s rage and anger at Osha betraying their trust to …