I Love These Wicked Nights: On Masahiro Shinoda’s ‘Pale Flower’
“‘Pale Flower’ is a magnificently emblematic example of the stylization, self-consciousness and independent spirit that defined the Japanese New Wave.”
Lost: Akira Kurosawa Noir
“In Kurosawa’s noir films, characters struggle to move beyond loss — personal, financial and national — only to find that more loss awaits them.”
Review: Roseanne Liang’s ‘Shadow in the Cloud’
“The ‘Shadow in the Cloud’ team acknowledges gremlin mythology with genuine admiration and respect.”
An Interview with ‘Chronicle of Space’ Filmmaker Akshay Indikar
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Chronicle of Space’ Filmmaker Akshay Indikar
Review: Vincent Paronnaud’s ‘Hunted’
“An exceedingly dark and violent survival horror film, ‘Hunted’ will make sure you never again go out alone at night.”
Kantemir Balagov’s ‘Beanpole’ Makes Oscar Shortlist
“‘Beanpole’ masters the unseen, the unspoken and the ‘presence of absence’ in the way it unpacks the toll of ongoing armed conflict through a kind of metonymic expression of experience.”
Review: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s ‘Synchronic’
“Benson and Moorhead’s typically dark, cynical tone is well-suited to the material until a too-neat ending tries to retcon ‘Synchronic’ into something else in the most jarring way possible.”
An Interview with ‘Meel Patthar’ Filmmaker Ivan Ayr
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Meel Patthar’ Filmmaker Ivan Ayr
Revelation as Retroactive in ‘Southland Tales’ and ‘Kaboom’
“‘Southland Tales’ and ‘Kaboom’ aren’t defined BY their end-of-days narratives, as their apocalypses define the contents through the fulfillment of apocalyptic revelations.”
By the Rivers of Babylon: Structure and Setting in Margaret Tait’s ‘Orquil Burn’
“In ‘Orquil Burn,’ an internalised inquiry meets external spaces with a quiet yet insistent beauty.”
Review: Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’
“One of the great pleasures of ‘Nomadland’ is the consistently shrewd and perceptive manner in which Fern’s hidden depths and flinty pragmatics defy expectations.”
Review: Evan Kidd’s ‘Panda Bear It’
“‘Panda Bear It’ suggests plenty about the human condition without the need to bog itself down with exposition or endless, energy-sapping ruminations.”
The Code Complex: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Carroll and ‘The Basketball Diaries’
“DiCaprio’s early 90s accomplishments have been widely dismissed or ignored ever since Titanic’s Jack Dawson become a beloved movie figure amongst parents and their nostalgia-loving kids.”
We’re All Mad Here: Chris Marker’s ‘A Grin Without a Cat’
“For a film about anger — both that of the social movements animated in protest and that belonging to the state which will brook no challenge to its authority — ‘A Grin Without a Cat’ is surprisingly without its own anger.”
Avenging the Destruction of True Love: François Truffaut’s ‘The Bride Wore Black’
“In ‘The Bride Wore Black,’ cruel fate rips true love away from the innocent, suggesting that Truffaut believed pure happiness is only found in fairy tales.”
An Interview with ‘Kaali Khuhi’ Director Terrie Samundra
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Kaali Khuhi’ Director Terrie Samundra
Review: Lawrence Michael Levine’s ‘Black Bear’
“It’s the sardonic, versatile Plaza performance that saves Levine’s ‘Black Bear.'”
The Crashing of the Wave: ‘Six in Paris’
“Despite being an uneven grouping hardly representative of the best these filmmakers had to offer, ‘Six in Paris’ is an interesting capsule of moments in time and space.”
Review: Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’
“Fennell’s uproariously funny film showcases a powerhouse Carey Mulligan in what could very well be her career-best performance.”
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.”