The first film of the new year is always an exciting moment. Why this specific movie to kick off 2026? The answer is simple: Daisy Ridley. Despite being familiar with some of the previous work by filmmaker Zak Hilditch (1922), my interest in this feature resided 100% in the lead …
The British multi-artist Charlie Shackleton is among the most fascinating figures in modern non-fiction. Throughout his extensive catalogue of short films, the director discussed criticism in the TikTok era, low-budget film production in the 1990s, but his most well-known work is a 607-minute static shot of paint drying on a brick …
Immigration is a central aspect of humanity. Since the beginning of time, the human being has had the need to transition from one place to another. Yet, the reasoning behind that shifted throughout the years. At the outset, individuals would move to access food and protect themselves from danger. However, …
Documentary filmmaking captures a particular notion of reality. Although common sense believes non-fiction means an utter sense of reality, it is a false premise. Every frame shot by a camera is an illusion, a magical process provided by technique to transform into imagery; consequently, it eternalizes something. The same goes …
Some labour and activities have existed since the beginning of human organization. One of them is midwifery. The assistance of a female individual during the birth of a child became an ordinary practice for several centuries. Yet, the professionalization of obstetrics replaced midwives with nurses, who assist the doctor during …
There’s a lot going on in the little town of Hawkins, Indiana, and none of it’s good. With so much going on in the Upside Down and with Vecna, it can be easy to forget that there are plenty of normal problems, too. While searching for Vecna, Nancy stumbles across …
A sweet young girl with a dark past becomes the live-in help for a troubled couple and ends up being exactly what the husband needs to heal his broken heart. Sounds like a classic Hallmark movie, doesn’t it? But turns out this story is closer to Hitchcock than Hallmark because …
Things are finally looking good for Aris and Blythe. After twenty-seven years apart, they’ve found their way back to each other and are starting their lives over again, together. All Blythe wants now is a perfect Christmas to mark the beginning of their happily ever after, and Aris wants to …
Looking for something to entertain you during the holidays but not consume all your time and energy during this busy season? Then I’ve got the book for you: Extremity by Nicholas Binge. It all starts with two murders that have the same victim. Everything from the face to the fingerprints …
I’ve always supported the idea that entering a movie theater without the weight of preconceived expectations is one of the greatest and rarest luxuries. In the case of The Housemaid, I didn’t read the source material, nor did I seek out details about the premise, allowing my interest to be …
The American documentary filmmaker Michéle Stephenson is one of the most exciting directors in the non-fiction community. Usually collaborating with her husband, Joe Brewster, the duo studies the Black American experience in their films. In 2023, they delivered an impressive pair of projects: the feature Going to Mars: The Nikki …
I started my home viewing of Goodbye June with no real expectations, being solely driven by a genuine curiosity about what Kate Winslet (Titanic) could achieve now that she has taken the director’s chair. I didn’t know much about the project, other than it was set during the Christmas season, …
There are a few artists who make a generational impact. A work that influences and emotions for multiple decades, even if they are not with us anymore. It is the outstanding beauty of artistry that breaks the geographical and time barriers. An accurate example of that concept is Selena Quintanilla, …
South Korean cinema holds a prominent place in my cinematic preferences, being a passion that makes me follow almost everything coming out of that region with genuine excitement. Beyond that, disaster movies are my ultimate guilty pleasure. I didn’t have any prior knowledge of director Kim Byung-woo‘s work, nor was …
Writing about James Cameron (Titanic) is always an exercise in managing expectations. It’s a precarious balance between recognizing his technical genius and the hope, sometimes frustrated, that the narrative can keep up with the visual evolution. When Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters thirteen years after the original production, …
We seem to have entered a season in which video adaptations can no longer be written off as trash before we even watch them. One of the most lauded adaptations has been Amazon’s Fallout, coming back for season 2. Even though I have still not played the game (despite having “New …
Usually, the cinema portrays tragedies that occur as incidents or natural disasters, if we call them that. The seasonal ones do not get representation on the big screen. Some regions are more susceptible to tornadoes, natural fires, and earthquakes. They are due to the geographical and geological compositions of those …
Jeff Nichols is one of the best directors that America has to offer and Midnight Special was a delight to revisit for its timely science fiction themes rooted in immigration and fear of a controlling government. A father and son are forced on the run when the father learns his …
Ready or Not tackles a difficult topic – very young teenagers playing very adult games – with a level of sympathy for their misadventures which makes the tough subject easy to watch. Writer Lynn Ruane and director Claire Frances Byrne talked at the Irish Film Festival London screening I attended …
Renoir, the sophomore feature from Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, continues her cinematic exploration of the notions of death, old age, and loneliness, preoccupations that loom over her body of work, such as in her feature debut Plan 75 (2022), the anthology film Ten Years Japan (2018), which she co-directed with …