True/False 2018 Review: Khalik Allah’s ‘Black Mother’
“Even if you do not believe in the soul, the film makes it impossible to deny the soul of a country, that which births us, grooms us, and to which we add as we live and die inside it.”
Dan Schindel
True/False 2018 Review: Cristina Hanes’ ‘António and Catarina’
“In ‘António and Catarina,’ the potential of youth contrasts the accumulated regrets of age.”
True/False 2018 Review: Beata Bubenec’s ‘Flight of a Bullet’
“Formally electrifying and ethically discomfiting at the same time, ‘Flight of a Bullet’ is a movie one could just as easily gawk at in wonder or endlessly debate over.”
2018 Oscar-Nominated Short Reviews: Best Live Action Short Film and Best Documentary (Short Subject)
“While nearly all Oscar-nominated shorts are doomed to eventual obscurity whether they win or not, that’s the key to one’s artistic staying power.”
Sundance Film Festival Review: David and Nathan Zellner’s ‘Damsel’
“A tremendously fun movie, ‘Damsel’ reinvigorates the Western aesthetic even as it defies many of the genre’s story conventions.”
Sundance Film Festival Review: Josephine Decker’s ‘Madeline’s Madeline’
“At the risk of succumbing to the Sundance hype atmosphere, writer/director Josephine Decker may be offering a new form of altered cinematic consciousness with ‘Madeline’s Madeline.’”
Sundance Film Festival Review: Nicolas Pesce’s ‘Piercing’
“‘Piercing’ plays out Reed and Jackie’s tryst as a sadomasochistic Punch and Judy routine, with the flare-ups of violence equally funny and horrifying.”
Review: Fatih Akin’s ‘In the Fade’
“Writer/director Akin presents everything through a stilted lens which mistakes prosaic framing and editing for a matter of fact tone.”
Review: Scott Cooper’s ‘Hostiles’
“For all its attempts at dissecting human cruelty, there’s no human core to this story, which makes its 135-minute runtime feel twice as long.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Zama’
“‘Zama’ is the kind of historical film that refuses to concede even the smallest positivity to the history in question.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Alexander Payne’s ‘Downsizing’
“‘Downsizing’ thinks it has big ideas, but artistically and intellectually, it’s as small as its protagonists.”
TIFF 2017 Review: Michael Haneke’s ‘Happy End’
“In ‘Happy End,’ writer/director Michael Haneke coalesces several of his recurring fixations.”
Review: Ben Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’
“‘High-Rise’ gazes without flinching at a cavalcade of violence without ever feeling like it’s truly stepped into the muck.”