You Must Be THIS OLD to Ride in George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’
“Romero’s movies have a workshop feel to them, which elevates the horror to a startlingly realistic terror as if it was being documented live.”
Review: Damian Mc Carthy’s ‘Caveat’
“Deeply unsettling and profoundly frightening, ‘Caveat’ is a remarkably assured debut for Mc Carthy and a real showcase for the talents of its small cast, particularly French as the tortured protagonist.”
Review: George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’
“‘The Amusement Park’ may not be Romero’s angriest film, but it’s one of his most deliberately disturbing…”
Interview with ‘Irul’ Filmmaker Naseef Yusuf Izuddin
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Irul’ Filmmaker Naseef Yusuf Izuddin
Review: Pat Mills’ ‘The Retreat’
“While having gay leads is a refreshing inclusion in a genre that has historically excised or executed them, Mills’ movie is a toothless response to the ‘bury your gays’ trope.”
Review: Yimou Zhang’s ‘Cliff Walkers’
“Yimou Zhang’s ‘Cliff Walkers’ looks amazing but suffers from poorly-written characters and stiff performances.”
Monte Hellman: A Master of the Language of Cinema
Author Joseph B. Atkins on Filmmaker Monte Hellman’s Life and Career
Netflix Review: Ryuichi Hiroki’s ‘Ride or Die’
“Plenty of double-themed movies have been made over the years, but ‘Ride or Die’ seems like an ideal companion piece to ‘Persona.’ Both films are sexually provocative, and both require multiple viewings to better understand the perspectives of each female protagonist.”
Netflix Review: ‘The Serpent’ Suffers from an Identity Crisis
“‘The Serpent’ fashions itself as a serial killer epic, but feels more like an uninspired Jacques Audiard knockoff that shows little interest in deconstructing the psychology of its subject.”
SXSW Review: Alex Noyer’s ‘Sound of Violence’ – A Loud but Toothless Slasher
“Sound of Violence’s nonchalant depictions of violence, which occur with such obfuscation due to uncoordinated quick-cut editing and color filters, render it a fangless drama with un-engaging sequences of killing and torture.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Bryan Fogel’s ‘The Dissident’
“Bryan Fogel’s new documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is unsurprisingly hard-hitting, but it’s the context for macro-scale geopolitics that ‘The Dissident’ communicates so well.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Min-Ho Woo’s ‘The Man Standing Next’
“Both emotionally and narratively, ‘The Man Standing Next’ is an easy story to get lost in.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Kevin Macdonald’s ‘The Mauritanian’
“The foregrounding of Mohamedou’s experiences and perspective — and, by extension, all those subjected to Guantánamo’s purpose — is the fuel in The Mauritanian’s engine.”
Antonio and Almodóvar
Fedor Tot on Pedro Almodóvar’s Collaborations with Antonio Banderas
Review: John Swab’s ‘Body Brokers’
“Swab’s personal experience bleeds into every frame of ‘Body Brokers,’ making it a taxing watch at times, but its true power lies in the details…”
Sundance Review: Jakub Piatek’s ‘Prime Time’
“‘Prime Time’ is at its most energetic and engaging during the early scenes; a setup familiar enough for any viewer of Sidney Lumet’s ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ or the many films he inspired.”
Sundance 2021 Review: Pascual Sisto’s ‘John and the Hole’
“‘John and the Hole’ may be too frustratingly vague to really connect, but it seems to challenge its audience from a place of urgency…”
Review: Nora Unkel’s ‘A Nightmare Wakes’
“Making a gothic horror story about the creation of a gothic horror story is a worthy and potentially enlightening idea, but Unkel fumbles the ball at every turn with ‘A Nightmare Wakes.'”
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.”
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.”