This is a review for the movie A Year of School. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘A Year of School’ A Charming Coming-of-Age Film

The emotional rollercoaster Giacomo Covi’s character undergoes in A Year of School is so relatable it’s obvious why he won the Best Actor prize in the Orrizonti strand of this year’s Venice Film Festival: a new prince has been crowned. In fact all four of the main actors in A …

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This is a banner for the film À pied d’œuvre, At Work. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘At Work’ Film Review: Bastien Bouillon is Quietly Compelling

In 2021 a small French movie called The World After Us played the festival circuit because it was one of the first modern movies to address life in the modern gig economy. It was a direct precursor to At Work, in that they are both about a novelist in Paris …

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‘The Last Viking’ Film Review: A Little Too Raw in All Sense of the Word

This comedy-thriller manages to be both very funny and gruesomely violent, with an appetite for the strange and startling that had the Venice Film Festival audience barking with shock as often as laughing. For the most part, the bold mood swings work, largely thanks to a setting which includes several …

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This is a banner for a review of Motor City. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Motor City’ Film Review: Alan Ritchson’s 70’s Stunt Spectacular

There is a fascinating new trend in cinema gathering steam: action movies with hardly any dialogue. Finland’s Sisu from 2022 shows Nazis being slaughtered without saying much about it, while America’s No One Will Save You from 2023 has a young woman fighting off an alien attack. And now Detroit …

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This is a banner for a review of the David Pablos film On The Road. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘On the Road’ Film Review: David Pablos’ Venice Orrizonti Winner Is A Neo-noir Road Movie With A Schmaltzy Impulse

Winner of the Orrizonti Award for Best Film at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, On the Road (En el Camino) is, at its core, a poignant tale of repressed desire bursting in the most undesirable of places. It’s the fifth feature from Mexican writer-director David Pablos, and it’s the …

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‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ Film Review: Paul Dano’s Remarkable Performance

Jude Law’s first appearance as Vladimir Putin is so eerily accurate the Venice Film Festival audience around me laughed in surprise. Who would have thought he could do it? Well congratulations to director Olivier Assayas and his casting director Antoinette Boulat, because the performance Mr. Law gives here is one …

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This is a banner for a review of Silent Rebellion. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Silent Rebellion’ Film Review: Working Class Feminism

There’s a little scene late in Silent Rebellion (À bras-le-corps) where a disgusting boss offers the young heroine, Emma (a wonderful Lila Gueneau), a “chance” at promotion, but is prevented from molesting her by an older female colleague making a scene. The other woman is punished, but she and Emma …

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This is a banner for a review of Il rapimento di Arabella, or The Kidnapping of Arabella. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘The Kidnapping of Arabella’ Movie Review: Proof that a Great Performance Can Take You Far

Benedetta Porcaroli won the Best Actress prize in the Orrizonti strands of the Venice Film Festival simply because this ridiculous movie would not have been possible without her spectacular performance. The Kidnapping of Arabella (Il rapimento di Arabella) does indeed involve a kidnapping but one in which we are not …

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This is a banner for a review of Cotton Queen. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Cotton Queen’ Film Review: Suzannah Mirghani’s Calling Card

Cotton Queen is the debut film of Russian-Sudanese writer-director Suzannah Mirghani and very clearly made for an international audience. The establishing shots of laughing teenager cotton workers watching Tiktoks make sure, even if we know nothing about Sudan, we know it’s firmly in the now. And while it is Sudanese …

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This is a banner for a review of My Tennis Maestro. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Il Maestro’ Review: A Coming of Age Through Tennis Film

This movie, for which the English title should be My Tennis Coach and it’s weird that it isn’t, is an affable Italian road movie about the coming of age of a wannabe tennis player. The entire thing is built around the nuclear-level charm of Pierfrancesco Favino (who previously worked with …

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This is a banner for a review of Human Resource. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Human Resource’ Film Review: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s Return to Realism Reckons With Personal Agency in a Harsh World

Playing in the Orizzonti competition program at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, Thai director and screenwriter Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s latest vision Human Resource doubles as an intimate character study and a meditative portrait of contemporary Thai life mapped through the soul-sapping mechanics of corporate grind, a kind of a white-collar …

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