Sundance Review: Hanna Bergholm’s ‘Hatching’
“An old-fashioned tale given a wonderfully disgusting makeover, ‘Hatching’ is a promising feature debut from Bergholm.”
Alistair Ryder
Sundance Review: Oliver Hermanus’ ‘Living’
“‘Living’ translates wonderfully to post-war Britain, but it never gives the audience time to explore the full depths of sadness like Kurosawa’s source material.”
London Film Festival Review: Sean Baker’s ‘Red Rocket’
“‘Red Rocket’ is Baker’s strongest work to date, a film much smarter (and far funnier) than its provocative synopsis would suggest.”
London Film Festival Review: Pablo Larraín’s ‘Spencer’
“There is a general sense of otherworldliness that feels enrapturing in ‘Spencer,’ even if Larraín stumbles while addressing the heavier themes.”
TIFF Review: Michel Franco’s ‘Sundown’
“‘Sundown’ is in the curious position of being a step backwards, while at least not plumbing to the ideological depths of ‘New Order’ to quite the same extent.”
TIFF Review: Mélanie Laurent’s ‘The Mad Women’s Ball’
“‘The Mad Women’s Ball’ is a squandered opportunity when considering the richness of both the source material and the many stories encapsulated within the asylum walls.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: C.B Yi’s ‘Moneyboys’
“‘Moneyboys’ is the first of a planned thematic trilogy from Yi, which is good news — this is the kind of promising debut that will make audiences eager to see what he does next.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Kira Kovalenko’s ‘Unclenching the Fists’
“‘Unclenching the Fists’ is a haunting watch, but a substantial one; a movie that will move Kovalenko up to the next tier of filmmakers in the arthouse and festival circuit.”
Cannes Film Festival Review: Teodora Mihai’s ‘La Civil’
“‘La Civil’ excels as a character study of a woman putting herself in considerable danger to find her daughter — but when viewed as a crime procedural, the necessity of relying on various tropes does the film a disservice.”
Review: Jon M. Chu’s ‘In the Heights’
“‘In the Heights’ is far from a smooth transition from stage to screen, but the film remains an infectiously charming tale of community, and a far more incisive piece of social commentary than one might expect from the creator of ‘Hamilton.'”
BFI Flare Review: Marley Morrison’s ‘Sweetheart’
“The way ‘Sweetheart’ approaches the topic of AJ’s sexuality isn’t groundbreaking, but in a world where queer coming of age stories are still defined by the “coming out” part, it feels refreshing all the same.”
BFI Flare Review: Oskar Roehler’s ‘Enfant Terrible’
“‘Enfant Terrible’ is one of the more successful examples of a director biopic, but the familiar conventions of the genre eventually do a disservice to such a talented filmmaker.”
Why Criticism: Can Film Criticism and Awards Season Co-Exist?
“Many of us may miss the drama of awards season, but there are untold benefits to criticism if it continues to evolve away from its current state.”
Sundance Review: Ben Wheatley’s ‘In the Earth’
“The most surprising thing about ‘In the Earth’ may be just how much of a return it is to the pitch black humour that characterised Wheatley’s earliest films.”
Sundance Review: Jane Schoenbrun’s ‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’
“‘We’re All Going to the World’s Fair’ would’ve benefitted from leaning more into the ambiguous lines between documentation and constructed fiction, but it remains a fascinating fiction debut nevertheless.”
Sundance Review: Nattawut Poonpiriya’s ‘One for the Road’
“‘One for the Road’ feels like a filmmaker trying to capture another director’s voice to the extent that they lose their own in the process.”
Review: Deepa Mehta’s ‘Funny Boy’
“‘Funny Boy’ may seem groundbreaking on paper, but there’s nothing particularly original about this overly familiar and largely reductive adaptation of an acclaimed novel.”
Review: Lee Isaac Chung’s ‘Minari’
“‘Minari’ might be the best example to date of a film that understands the romantic appeal of a country that claims to pride itself on its immigrant population, and why millions of people worldwide still follow that ideal…”
Review: Kornél Mundruczó’s ‘Pieces of a Woman’
“There’s a lot to admire about ‘Pieces of a Woman,’ but Mundruczó’s film loses its way as it continues to untether itself from the opening’s grounded realism.”
Local Heroes: Alistair Ryder on Odeon Leeds-Bradford
“If the cinema was responsible for so many happy childhood memories, how could I continue to embrace reminiscing when it was equally responsible for the soul-crushing tedium of a public-facing retail job?”