The Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason is one of the most fascinating voices in the current European cinema. Known for his 2022 film Godland (Vanskabte land), a project about a young Danish priest traveling to the remote parts of Iceland. It premiered at that year’s Un Certain Regard of the Cannes …
Originally titled Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen, which translates as “Longing in Sangerhausen,” Julian Radlmaier’s latest feature and Locarno 2025 in-competition entry Phantoms of July unfolds as a spirited absurdist dramedy set in the titular mining town that formed part of East Germany prior to reunification. It is the kind of movie …
Filmes de Plástico (which translates to plastic films) is a Brazilian production company based in the outskirts of Contagem, in the greater Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest capitals. The city is primarily a refuge for the working class, where rentals are less expensive than in the capital, which is …
In modern Ukrainian filmmaking, Valentyn Vasyanovych is one of the best-known names on the festival circuit. His films Atlantis and Reflection premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In this sense, the director has already been discussing the Russia-Ukraine conflict in his work. Reflection narrates the kidnapping of a Ukrainian surgeon …
The Romanian director Radu Jude is one of the most prolific filmmakers of our time. A member of the Romanian New Wave, a group of new voices in the mid-2000s, which generated great works from Cristian Mungiu, Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and Alexander Nanau. Since 2020, Jude has released 11 …
As the title makes abundantly clear, Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri (which means ‘you’re mine, I’m yours, I’m yours, you’re mine’ in Hindi) is here to have its cake and eat it. Its explicit purpose is to make a 90s-style romance (this means old-fashioned, readers of a …
Most people in the West probably never saw A Step Into the Past, a one-season Hong Kong TV show from 2001 about a modern scientist who ends up back in the Qin dynasty. Therefore the major draw of Back to the Past, which finishes the plotlines of that TV show, …
When discussing modern experimental electronic music, Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is a prominent name in the conversation. Despite releasing acclaimed solo records, OPN also produced artists like FKA Twigs, Charli XCX, The Weeknd, and Soccer Mommy, musicians who bring electronic elements to mainstream pop. …
For the last forty years, the Sundance Film Festival has been a crucial festival to highlight American independent cinema. Each year, when the event unveils its lineup, cinephiles, audiences, and sales agents dive into the programming to guess which of the selections will join films like Little Miss Sunshine, Memento, …
A mishmash of moods held together by preposterous musical numbers is part of the appeal of most Indian cinema, but Telugu-language The RajaSaab holds together worse than most. There are three movies inside The RajaSaab struggling to get out: a haunted-house horror thriller, a paean to the grandmothers who raised …
It may come as a surprise but SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most successful cartoons of all-time in terms of popularity and longevity. While it doesn’t boast the same quality as cartoons like fellow Nickelodeon juggernaut Avatar: The Last Airbender, its frivolous humour and eccentric-to-a-fault characters are hard not …
Since his debut feature in 2006 with Reprise, Joachim Trier has become a relevant author in the arthouse circuit. His films gathered attention for the humanity, but centered on the use of Oslo, Norway, as a prominent character. Hence, Trier is mainly associated with his “Oslo Trilogy”, composed by Reprise, …
What if you could hire a doppelganger to solve your responsibilities while you dedicate yourself to another activity? It is the logline for Serious People, the directorial debut of Pasqual Gutierrez, which he co-directs with Ben Mullinkosson. Gutierrez is a prestigious music video director, having directed videos for The Weeknd, Madonna, and Playboi …
James L. Brooks is a legend in American popular culture. In the 1970s, he co-created groundbreaking TV shows like Room 222 and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a breakthrough sitcom that influenced plenty of showrunners in subsequent periods of TV. Yet, in the 1980s, Brooks achieved success in film with …
Each generation faces the inevitable clash with the ones before. They were morally superior, enjoyed life better, and lived through their days properly. The generational clash is arguably never fading. Each age gap has divergences within the collective of individuals, particularly in their relationships with the environment and with society …
When the screening I attended of Colors of Time finished, the woman next to me mentioned how unusual it is to see a movie without a whisper of violence in it. She is right: some slightly hurt feelings are as bad as it gets here. But this is not to …
Some might say Lady, which had its world premiere at the London Film Festival, is Saltburn meets What We Do in the Shadows. That’s not correct, as it’s both those movies meets Florence Foster Jenkins. By which I mean, Lady is a faux-documentary about an utterly deluded and impossibly wealthy …
The greatest glory of Pillion is that its sexual boldness is in service to an important point about self-determination and personal desire. We can watch this for the action, the message, or both. Though don’t get your hopes up too high: not a great deal of ‘action’ is shown, although …
Eternity feels like the type of movie made 60 or 70 years ago. Charming and romantic, this comedy-drama relies on the on-screen chemistry of its leading stars and whip-smart writing. Set in a version of the afterlife, Eternity explores who from your life you will be destined to spend your …
There are only so many ways one can put up a facade, and yet every time Matthias (an unassumingly effective Albrecht Schuch) takes on a different life in different social scenarios, in front of total strangers, it’s as if all the pretense is infinite. Matthias has faked it so real …