Berlinale 2018 Review: Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’
“While messy in parts and offering more of a sprint than a narrative marathon, there is great heart and ferocious energy in this cartoonish caper.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Laura Bispuri’s ‘Daughter of Mine’
“Messy and real, touching and convincingly brought to the screen, ‘Daughter of Mine’ is a joyous, heart and mind-expanding film.”
Review: Francis Lawrence’s ‘Red Sparrow’
“In post-Hunger Games mode, Jennifer Lawrence continues her streak of pushing the envelope.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Cédric Kahn’s ‘The Prayer’
“‘The Prayer’ – and its strange mountain community – is oddly timeless or out-of-our-time.”
Berlinale 2018 Review: Christian Petzold’s ‘Transit’
“For those who didn’t think Petzold could improve after ‘Phoenix,’ you might have to reconsider after experiencing ‘Transit.’”
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.”
The Striking Punch of Subversion: Devashish Makhija’s ‘Ajji’
“‘Ajji’ successfully imparts the notion that it’s compulsory for victims to retaliate against extreme injustice by transforming into wolves.”
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: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’
“If indeed this is Day-Lewis’ swan song, ‘Phantom Thread’ is the crowning achievement of a monumental career.”
Review: Ridley Scott’s ‘All the Money in the World’
“It’s ultimately Scarpa’s bizarre scripting decisions that make the film just a fun crime thriller, and not a Ridley Scott classic.”
Review: Valérie Massadian’s ‘Milla’
“Although the well worn label of ‘humanist’ may have lost its meaning by now, ‘Milla’ truly lives up to the mantle, as it is ultimately concerned with the fortitude and ability of a young woman to create a space of her own in the world.”
Review: Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Molly’s Game’
“For a film that prides itself on being ‘based on a true story,’ ‘Molly’s Game’ often relies on moments that are too coincidental, too easy. Yet, there’s nothing here to suggest that Sorkin won’t eventually figure things out behind the camera.”
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: Nora Twomey’s ‘The Breadwinner’
“‘The Breadwinner’ is a beautifully-constructed yet grueling story of female bravery that feels both timeless and timely.”
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.”
Real, All Too Real: Rakhee Sandilya’s ‘Ribbon’
“Within the context of a cinema that is high-strung and often defined by its over-the-top, spectacle-driven family dramas, ‘Ribbon’ and its smallness (and everydayness) is not just a refreshing break but an extremely well-timed breaking of the mold.”
The Story of the Girl Named Blue: Danish Renzu’s ‘Half Widow’
“Renzu’s film gives a face to the thousands of women featured in the papers, disturbingly called ‘half widows’ — not just defined by the lack of a husband, but also by this ‘half,’ not full, not a complete status of being.”
Murphy’s Law and the Man Who Murdered Himself: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s ‘Long Live Brij Mohan!’
“If Murphy’s Law were to be made into a film, it’d look a lot like Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s ‘Long Live Brij Mohan!’ His production, in more ways than one, is also a metaphor for the city of Delhi.”