In China, when there is suspicion of an affair, people hire a private investigator to terminate the relationship. It is a growing profession called Mistress Dispeller. When facing the infidelity of her husband, Mrs. Li decides to tell her brother, who connects her with Wang Zhenxi, a professional mistress dispeller. …
During the pandemic, actor Will Ferrell got an email while shooting Spirited by Sean Anders. It was an announcement from an old friend he made when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1995. He joined the cast as a performer and the friend as a sketch writer. …
It’s depressing to realize someone is coasting on their reputation instead of using their talent, and in fact making so little use of their talent that their reputation becomes suspect. This is the sorry state of affairs after seeing The Room Next Door, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, that …
This 3 ½ hour long tale, complete with intermission, of a Jewish-Hungarian architect attempting to make his way in America after the second world war is what Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis wishes it had been. It is about human dignity in the face of incredible suffering, and the ways in …
Happy Holidays is possibly as apolitical as a Palestinian movie can get, which is to say not very. Writer-editor-director Scandar Copti, who won the Orrozonti prize for best screenplay at this year’s Venice Biennale, worked with non-professional actors in an non-linear fashion to depict a very bad few months in …
They live in Metz, a city in northeastern France close to the borders with both Germany and Luxembourg. Both sons, who are in their very early twenties, cheerfully live at home. The older Fus (Benjamin Voisin) studied to be a welder but has been unable to find paying work so …
Writer-director Francesca Comencini apparently decided that her entire audience for The Time It Takes would be people who already knew that she is the daughter of the late Italian film director Luigi Comencini. This was so obvious to her that neither the father (played by Fabrizio Gifuni) nor the daughter …
What you have to realize about Queer is that it is an adaptation of a book by William S. Burroughs, so the queerness on display here is less about sexuality, but more a way of looking at the world. William Lee, largely Lee to his friends (an astonishing Daniel Craig), …
The most anticipated film of the Venice Biennale this year was the epic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2, which landed with something of a whimper instead of the bang it truly deserves. Kevin Costner’s project, the first part of which had its world premiere in Cannes this past …
There is a disturbing edge to Yudhra that is only slightly explained by the plot. It is clear from how action director Federico Cueva, cinematographer Jay Oza and director Ravi Udyawar staged and filmed the brutal fight scenes that they really enjoyed going so hard. The (superb) night-time gunfight on …
Among all streaming services, Apple TV+ is the one that comes closest to the motto “quality over quantity.” Compared to Netflix, Max, Disney+, or Prime Video, the “apple network” doesn’t produce as much content – ugh, hate that word – but the average quality of its films and series is …
Personally, all it takes is an interesting cast to convince me to sit down in a theater or on my couch at home to watch a movie without feeling the need to look up any further information about it. Killer Heat fits into this “category”, featuring a trio of leads …
Agatha All Along, with Kathryn Hahn, is the latest from Marvel Television and is a solid Halloween watch. Ever since Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been scrutinized. Fans have felt that the post-Infinity Saga films and television series have lacked focus. While engaging characters have entered the equation, it’s …
The title of writer-director Daisy-May Hudson’s latest feature, Lollipop, hearkens to a sticky-sweet childhood candy and its colorful, innocent connotations. Yet this film opens with a collect phone call playing over the BFI funding title card, notifying the recipient that it is from a British prison and how to decline …
It may be unrealistic to suggest that zombies will rise from graves or aliens will flood the sky, but a lot of films and TV shows, like War of the Worlds and The Walking Dead, provide an insight into what might happen in those situations. They beg the question: what …
This movie contains an entire wedding party being taken hostage, but the violence within Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam is largely cartoonish and unthreatening. At one point, heavily armed henchmen break into a house and are easily trounced by a group of middle-aged women armed only with heavy sticks. Let’s repeat …
Documentary filmmaking allows authors to connect with audiences through their memories. Docu-essays and diaries transport memories to the screen in a proposition of developing and expanding the feelings of the past. As we watch the first minutes of Tata, the film by Radu Ciornciuc and Lina Vdovîi, we travel back …
Reality Winner (yes, that is her real name) is a veteran of the United States Air Force, but she’s best known for leaking classified government documents to the media. Those documents regarded Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. It was a story that dominated talk shows and news stations …
The A24 studio has become exponentially popular over the last decade, particularly within the horror genre, by offering opportunities to inexperienced filmmakers to venture into the field with original stories that are less accessible to mainstream audiences. But before A24, there was IFC Films and its secondary label, IFC Midnight, …
The documentary genre is well acquainted with the strangest facets of the human experience, but *smiles and kisses you* – the sophomore documentary feature from director Brian Carberry – broaches an unorthodox relationship with an almost reckless candor. The film follows Chris, a 36-year-old gas station cashier in rural North …