“Look past the chastity cages, pup masks and Prince Albert piercings and you’ll find one of the most incisive, painfully relatable stories about modern queer romance to have arrived of late.”
“‘She’s the He’ is a successful attempt at not just carving out a space for LGBTQ identity amidst the overbearingly heterosexual narrative tropes, but also bending those tropes so they can fit into a tale of trans awakening…”
“For a film which tackles the cathartic nature of art and how fiction can help us heal after a tragedy, the personal touches of ‘Hamnet’ feel hollow whenever Zhao tries to conform to Shakespeare’s pop culture image.”
“As a film about the healing properties of the creative process, ‘Sentimental Value’ is rare in that the in-movie writing, performances and direction aren’t cathartic for the characters, but rather function as obstacles when they try to unpack their feelings.”
“‘Wake Up Dead Man’ transforms into something more impactful by sincerely and non-judgmentally attempting to grapple with faith from an atheist’s perspective.”
“‘Plainclothes’ isn’t necessarily a kinky film — it just does better than most tales of life in the closet to explain why this can be more alluring than coming out and finding somewhere to make these connections in the open.”
“In ‘One Battle After Another,’ the political is inextricable from the personal, in a way that transcends a mere commentary on Trump’s America.”
“Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of ‘HIM’ is that Tipping is clearly a talented visual stylist, but his keen eye never quite helps the screenplay transcend various cliches.”
“Aside from the half-assed plotting, the biggest flaw of ‘Honey Don’t!’ is that even with Cooke’s involvement, the sexuality of the protagonists lacks any sort of perceptive depth, with no inter-character dynamic feeling more lived-in than the plot needs it to be.”
“‘The Toxic Avenger’ isn’t unpalatable to the mainstream, but it quickly becomes evident why the film was left on the shelf for a couple of years.”
“As a cinematic epitaph for an extraordinary young woman, ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk’ more than captures the spirit of Fatima Hassouna.”
“After a few missteps since ‘Two Days, One Night’ became an unlikely crossover success, the Dardennes brothers are back on track with ‘The Young Mother’s Home.’ It’s their simplest, most open hearted work to date…”
“Gradually, the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy redefines queerness as a process of self-discovery which can always evolve, rather than an ill-fitting label you’re stuck with after a single formative experience.”
“Weard’s anthology series is shaping up to be one of the decade’s most impactful queer texts.”
“‘Knock Out Blonde’ isn’t the kind of documentary that wants to paint a complicated picture of its subject — which, paradoxically, would be the kind of boundary-pushing representation we need now.”
“Love on Trial’s opening two acts integrate personal drama into a subtly scathing social critique, but Fukada’s narrative loses power when the heroine must contend with the dark price of fame.”
“‘I Only Rest in the Storm’ is a succinctly angry film in large part because Pinho knows it doesn’t offer a reassuring explanation about its myriad themes.”
“Perhaps if ‘Crawdaddy’ played into the idea of an unremarkably ordinary man becoming a sex symbol for comedy, the sillier tone elsewhere wouldn’t feel as disparate from the rest.”
“It’s a shame that the conversations ‘The Fishing Place’ will provoke just might be far more substantial than anything within the film itself.”
“The biggest problem with ‘Pet Shop Days’ is the extent to which it feels indebted to both an earlier wave of rebellious LGBTQ cinema and current trends in American independent filmmaking, never finding a distinct identity beyond homage.”