The Un Certain Regard section is the second most significant section of the Cannes Film Festival. It presents rising directors who already have a presence in world cinema. It is the case of Un Poeta (A Poet), directed by Simón Mesa Soto. The Colombian filmmaker presented his last film, Amparo, …
The ripped-from-the-headlines Case 137 (Dossier 137) combines two genres everybody loves. The first is the detailed bureaucracy of justice and how much easier it is to find objective truth since we all started carrying recording devices (our mobile phones) around at all times. Think Anatomy of a Fall and Saint …
The Portuguese director Pedro Pinho presents his latest film, O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm), at the Un Certain Regard section in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The author’s last full-length feature, A Fábrica de Nada, had its premiere at the Quinzaine des Cineastes in …
In French director Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy drama, The Marching Band (En fanfare), the celebrated orchestra conductor, Thibaut Desormeaux (Benjamin Lavernhe) is diagnosed with leukemia. To his surprise, the tests to identify a bone marrow donor reveal that he was adopted. The search for his brother leads him to Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), …
My optimism about the direction of season 4 of Hacks was up with episode 4, but it immediately dropped again while watching episode 5, Clickable Face. I have a little bit of sunk cost going on here, but goodness, this season is feeling like a slog, and that’s a serious disappointment for a …
Alex Garland, known for his thought-provoking storytelling in films like Ex Machina and Civil War, joins forces with war veteran Ray Mendoza to create one of his most ambitious projects to date. Co-written by the two filmmakers, Warfare aims to depict a military surveillance mission with the utmost realism – …
The opening episodes of season 4 of Hacks left this critic feeling a bit cold, but episode 4, I Love LA, is the first time that I’ve felt a bit of hope for the remainder of the season. Hacks has been one of my favorite comedies since it premiered four …
The grand Austrian director Michael Haneke famously stated, to paraphrase, that a film is 24 lies per second in service of the attempt to find the truth. In this sense, cinema is a mere representation of the reality. This conceptualization allows multiple directors to experiment with the understanding of the …
When it comes to the Indian film industry, there are only a few actors who don’t need to do extravagant promotional events to sell tickets. One such actor is Suriya, and fans go berserk whenever he announces his next movie. However, some of his previous films haven’t turned out to …
Italian director Yuri Ancarani declares in his Venice Film Festival statement that “Atlantide is a film that began without a screenplay.” It could very well be said that it still hasn’t got one. There are, perhaps, 15 lines of dialogue in Ancarani’s ridiculous and amateurish film about Daniele, (Daniele Barison) …
Edgar Wright, acclaimed cult director of Baby Driver and Hot Fuzz fame, directs Last Night In Soho with a breezy smoothness, but this vibrant, pulpy horror is disappointingly toothless. In contemporary Cornwall, naive and fresh faced 18 year old Eloise ‘Ellie’ Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is standing in her room. Fashion …
In recent years, there has been a massive influx of movies and TV series that showcase the reality of the entertainment industry and how youngsters navigate the world of showbiz. Most importantly, these titles exhibit how young people navigate through life while trying to achieve something, which makes them raw …
Hacks season 4 continues to underwhelm as it comes on with episode 3, What Happens in Vegas. Despite two absolutely electric leads and a primary story that has the ability to highlight some of the inequities in late-night television, specifically, and women in entertainment more broadly, it continues to pit Ava …
The Max Original comedy series Hacks is back for season 4, and this critic couldn’t be happier. Jean Smart’s renaissance has been an absolute delight, and of her many roles, Deborah Vance is a favorite. While the second season ended in a way that allowed the show a satisfying end …
This loving but very sad movie obeys a stereotype of Spanish cinema by handling a complex issue – in this case, domestic violence – through the eyes of a very small girl. The Spirit of the Beehive handled the Spanish civil war this way, as Summer 1993 handled AIDS and …
Bullet Train Explosion marks Japan’s return to one of cinema’s most intense rail thrillers, nearly fifty years after the release of Junya Sato’s classic The Bullet Train. This legacy sequel is directed by Shinji Higuchi (Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman) and penned by Kazuhiro Nakagawa and Norichika Ōba. While the concept …
Gareth Evans isn’t a filmmaker with an extensive portfolio, but cult classics The Raid and The Raid 2 were enough to cement his legacy in action cinema. Any avid fan of the genre recognizes these movies as a major influence – not just for the intensity of their fight set …
Australian auteur Justin Kurzel adapts Richard Flanagan’s novel to harrowing effect in The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The adaptation blends a harrowing tale of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp with a war-bound love story and a modern tale of surviving the trauma. The series doesn’t wait to set up …
Rebecca Lenkiewicz will always be in the British history books as the first living female writer to have a play produced by The National Theatre. Her Naked Skin, staged in 2008, was about the violence involved as British women fought for the right to vote; my main memory is of …
Silver Star, a determinedly quirky little movie, is a throwback to the indie cinema of the nineties in the best way. It stands and falls entirely on the actions of two unpredictable people, thrown together through a combination of foolishness and bad decisions, and who stick together through a combination …