Fantasia Fest Review: Paul Andrew Williams’ ‘Bull’
“Williams’ reliance on violence doesn’t transgress in ‘Bull,’ it merely toes the line. Imagine what he could do if he really let himself go.”
Ben Flanagan
Fantasia Fest Review: Sôshi Masumoto’s ‘It’s a Summer Film!’
“‘It’s a Summer Film!’ has a genuine emotional core, which layers each wild twist into another heartrending moment.”
Review: Caleb Michael Johnson’s ‘The Carnivores’
“Johnson doesn’t create a specific sense of place in ‘The Carnivores,’ nor does he develop the characters into anything more than cyphers for American angst that a million Sundance films have delivered before.”
Review: Joe Denardo and Paul Felten’s ‘Slow Machine’
“The conspiratorial is everywhere in ‘Slow Machine’ but doesn’t come into focus.”
Trapped in the Bed Frame: On Marco Bellocchio’s ‘Devil in the Flesh’
“Bellocchio’s 1986 film ‘Devil in the Flesh’ is perfectly representative of the great Italian director’s outlook.”
‘Gauguin’ and ‘Guernica’: Alain Resnais Comes Unstuck
“If ‘Gauguin’ and ‘Guernica’ shine a light on their respective subjects, they also present a key part of Resnais’ own development as an artist.”
Review: Stephen Kijak’s ‘Shoplifters of the World’
“‘Shoplifters of the World’ seems more affectionate to 2000s conceptions of 1980s nostalgia than to the thing itself.”
Review: Predrag Antonijevic’s ‘Dara of Jasenovac’
“Given that ‘Dara of Jasenovac’ is the first Serbian film to cover the camps, the implicit didacticism would actually be more welcomed if it did its job and taught viewers something.”
IFFR Review: Hung-I Chen and Muni Wei’s ‘As We Like It’
“‘As We Like It’ is a film that makes many unique moments out of its childish buffoonery, and it’s lifted, like its characters, into a class of its own.”
IFFR Review: Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘Riders of Justice’
“By the time ‘Riders of Justice’ ramps up its stakes, the final showdown hardly seems to matter as much as the gang’s presence.”
The Borders of Film Noir: Genre in Takeshi Nomura’s ‘A Colt Is My Passport’
“‘A Colt Is My Passport’ represents a supreme tension between American and Japanese Noir, and asks questions about the past and future of international cinema.”
Review: Conor Allyn’s ‘No Man’s Land’
“‘No Man’s Land,’ Conor Allyn’s earthy effort at a serious revisionist western, is a film of good intentions that goes awry when it attempts to unpack any of its ideas.”
Why Criticism: Chasing Restorations, from Wong Kar-Wai to Wonder Woman
“The total dominance of our digital cinema platforms has forced cinephiles to reckon with their own assumptions and understanding of the medium.”
Review: Lawrence Michael Levine’s ‘Black Bear’
“It’s the sardonic, versatile Plaza performance that saves Levine’s ‘Black Bear.'”
Review: Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Another Round’
“‘Another Round’ is a high-concept character piece that dips its toes into national themes, but never long enough to put off the international market it’s clearly geared towards.”
Review: Christopher Landon’s ‘Freaky’
“‘Freaky’ is uneven, but it has moments of magic.”
Review: David Fincher’s ‘Mank’
“‘Mank’ is just the latest installment in Netflix’s self-concious branding strategy.”
London Film Festival Review: Michel Franco’s ‘New Order’
“By the time Franco joins together strands that the audience will most likely have seen coming, ‘New Order’ grinds to a halt.”
London Film Festival Review: Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Possessor’
“There is so much stuff in ‘Possessor’ that you might think you’re at a venerable cinematic feast. But take away the squelching and splatter and there’s barely enough to fill an episode of ‘Black Mirror.”
London Film Festival Review: Jennifer Sheridan’s ‘Rose’
“Many British micro-productions focus on Britain’s mud. ‘Rose’ shows us the frost.”