Ever since I watched Ilya Naishuller’s sophomore flick, Nobody (2021), starring Bob Odenkirk – a visceral action flick laced with dry, stylized humor – his name stuck in my memory. Even so, I have to admit my expectations for Heads of State were quite low. The premise sounded over-the-top even …
Rock Werchter is the premier rock festival in Belgium and undergoing a radical shift this year in the lineup thanks to sponsors LiveNation (boo) – running between July 3 and 6 2025. No longer four days of hard rock (was it ever really when Dua Lipa headlined last year?) instead …
2000 Trees is an indie festival that takes place between 9-12 July in Cheltenham over a four-day split that switches gears from indie rock to metal and everything in between. It’s a fascinating mix of genres and talent and one of the most lovely, friendly festivals in the UK that …
In a meta-accomplishment that is owed kudos, Florian Zeller goes from The Father to The Son in a misguided misfire that attempts one idea: trauma is inherited from father to son. When Florian Zeller’s debut feature The Father premiered at Sundance in 2020, it was met with rapturous acclaim. It …
At the outset, F1 was already a hard film to review. Similar to Ezra Miller, the longtime actor Brad Pitt’s personal life has become a conflicting topic, especially since his family life hit the news. At the same time, F1 director Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick is one of the …
Comfort television can be a grey area for many viewers. What one may find comforting could be dull and trite to others. That’s what makes some television series hard to connect with for some viewers. Particularly, this can be attributed to shows about the entertainment industry. With the common TV-watcher …
Hacks season 4 has come to a close, and what a ride it has been! I admit, I lost faith early in the process, but the writers were able to pull off a solid season of television. The finale, Heaven, is a bit of a come-down after the highs of …
At times it’s best to encounter a movie as a blank slate, even for film critics like me who have never been put off by any ounce of spoilers. If anything, there’s a different kind of pleasure that arises from experiencing something for the first time, and it’s often ambrosial …
The veteran indie director Stephanie Laing (Irreplaceable You and Family Squares) teams up with Rose Byrne to present Tow. The film tells the true story of Amanda Ogle (Byrne), a woman who left her child, Avery (Elsie Fisher), to find a better life condition as a veterinary technician. However, she …
Failure To Launch is loaded with talent and a romantic comedy that was at the tail end of the classic late 1990s and early 2000s explosion in the genre. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey as the leads. Sarah Jessica Parker had just come off the long-running Sex …
1950s Miami, a spooky theatre, and an even spookier – animated – baddie. Well it could only be another big creative swing from Russell T Davies in the second episode of Doctor Who titled Lux. The introductory episode shackles have been shaken off and the doctor and Belinda are getting …
Everyone got really excited when Netflix announced that stars such as Saif Ali Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat would be coming together for a heist movie, Jewel Thief: The Heist Begins, and they were hoping to see a good Indian movie based on that theme. Heist is one of the genres that …
Director David Verbeek presents his latest film, The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard, at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Divided into chapters, the film narrates the story of a girl (Jessica Reynolds) who lives in the woods as a wolf. She behaves, eats, and walks like a wolf. Suddenly, …
In her debut feature premiering at this year’s Tribeca, Lillian T. Mehrel narrates about the relationship between a mother and daughter in Honeyjoon. In the film, June (Ayden Mayeri) and Lela (Amira Casar) travel to Açores in Portugal to celebrate the first anniversary of the family patriarch’s death. In their …
Australian director Charles Williams presents his debut feature: Inside. Williams won the short film Palme d’Or in 2018 at Cannes for All These Creatures and soon became a potential talent for the future. Six years later, the director narrates the story of a young man, Mel (Vincent Miller), who is …
After working on their respective short films and co-directing the documentary short Dollar Pizza Documentary, Brooklyn-based filmmakers Travis Wood and Alex Mallis are upping the ante as their debut feature The Travel Companion is having its world premiere in the US Narrative Competition section of the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. …
There are some shots of actress Suzu Hirose in A Pale View of Hills that are so gorgeous the audience at the Cannes Film Festival gasped aloud. Cinematographer Piotr Niemyjski clearly made heavy use of visual effects in his work – not least for the many gorgeous shots of Nagasaki …
The generic title underplays the importance of this French war film, which does something utterly shocking from an American perspective: it pays respect to France’s allies, too. Not since the days of World War II movies have any American films bothered to mark our allies, even in passing. (A brief …
In the USA, the Italian actress Valeria Golino is mainly famous for two very different roles: as Tom Cruise’s sexy girlfriend in the incredibly serious Rain Man from 1988, and then as Charlie Sheen’s sexy love interest in the incredibly silly Hot Shots! movies in 1991 and 1993. Ms. Golino …
No one quite knows what to do with director Fatih Akin. His explosive early movie Head-On was about the complex convergence of immigration and mental health issues between two Turkish-German punks. It’s one of the most violent and romantic movies ever made and also one of the smartest about intersectional …