Review: Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’
“By its very nature, ‘Nosferatu’ is a pessimistic story, which might be why the biggest surprise of Eggers’ take is that it’s his most accessible effort to date.”
Alistair Ryder
Review: Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’
“‘The Brutalist’ may appear like an inaccessible art picture from the outside, but it moves with an energy that ensures the casual viewer will never be daunted by its epic stature…”
Review: Tim Hautekiet’s ‘Me, Myself & the Void’
“‘Me, Myself & the Void’ was clearly made with passion and enthusiasm, but none of Hautekiet’s efforts can stop the mystery from feeling like it’s dragging its heels towards an obvious conclusion…”
Review: Taku Aoyagi’s ‘Tokyo Uber Blues’
“‘Tokyo Uber Blues’ is best when it works as a borderline psychodramatic character study…”
Review: Benjamin Ree’s ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’
“There are moments of richness in ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,’ but they only materialize when Ree allows his tale to be told from the only truly lived-in perspective.”
Review: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ ‘Heretic’
“‘Heretic’ is the thinking man’s dumb horror movie of the year.”
London Film Festival Review: Marielle Heller’s ‘Nightbitch’
“‘Nightbitch’ is all empty message and no provocation, its few shots of a fully transformed protagonist shocking only because of how little effort was made beyond giving Adams some contact lenses…”
London Film Festival Review: Mike Leigh’s ‘Hard Truths’
“For my money, Jean-Baptiste gives one of the strongest performances in Leigh’s oeuvre, afforded the space to go ‘big’ in ‘Hard Truths’ without ever feeling like she’s commanding a self-aggrandizing actor’s showcase.”
Review: Natalie Erika James’ ‘Apartment 7A’
“Natalie Erika James manages to follow a near-identical narrative formula to ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ but without the sense of genuine danger. A story that should retain its prescience is rendered nothing more than nostalgia bait.”
Review: Coralie Fargeat’s ‘The Substance’
“‘The Substance’ feels weirdly outdated, despite the writer-director’s many provocative attempts to demonstrate how misogyny and ageism play out in contemporary media.”
Review: Jeremy Saulnier’s ‘Rebel Ridge’
“For a filmmaker who made his name with two hyper-violent thrillers that triggered some queasy walkouts on the festival circuit, the character-driven moments in ‘Rebel Ridge’ feel like an evolution for Saulnier.”
Edinburgh Film Festival Review: Nathan Silver’s ‘Between the Temples’
“With ‘Between the Temples,’ Silver shows an awareness of dramedy cliches and takes great pleasure in making the audience’s skin crawl each time the narrative takes a sharp left turn from expectations.”
Edinburgh Film Festival Review: Nora Fingscheidt’s ‘The Outrun’
“‘The Outrun’ feels lacking in the specificity that makes for rewarding character drama.”
Review: Rich Peppiatt’s ‘Kneecap’
“If ‘Kneecap’ was merely the first ‘edgy’ comedy in years with gags as shocking as they are laugh-out-loud hysterical, that would be enough to recommend it.”
Review: Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’
“In just her second film, Kapadia has become one of the most exciting directors working today. I doubt Cannes will be as quick to write off the cinema of India in her wake.”
Review: Bertrand Bonello’s ‘Coma’
“‘Coma’ conjures up the spirit of 2020 like no other movie thus far. Through its unwieldy structure and genre delineation, Bonello’s film often feels every bit as disorienting as it was to scroll through social media timelines during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’
“‘Civil War’ is a lot smarter than meets the eye, and the film is far more incisive in its cultural critique than its director’s simplistic interview comments may make it seem.”
Review: Arkasha Stevenson’s ‘The First Omen’
“What ‘The First Omen’ lacks in innovation it makes up for in boldness, pushing familiar supernatural genre tropes about the secret relationship between the Church and the Devil to ideological extremes.”
Review: Matteo Garrone’s ‘Io Capitano’
“‘Io Capitano’ feels carefully researched in its subject matter, while the narrative itself is constructed with an intensity far more characteristic of Garrone’s genre work.”
Review: George Clooney’s ‘The Boys in the Boat’
“By only fleetingly bringing attention to the economic hardships at play, ‘The Boys in the Boat’ frustratingly remains a niche proposition, of fascination only to fans of the film’s focal sport.”