Seminci 2015: No Scheherazade Story in Palestinian ‘3000 Nights’
Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid: Andreea Pฤtru on the recipient of the 2015 Meeting Point Audience Award.
Review: Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Room’
“Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film, Room, has an incredibly unique script and one of the best performances of the year. So why is the film just good, and not great?”
Review: Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Lobster’
“A sharp, claustrophobic study of human relationships, The Lobster puts humanity’s obsession with coupling on full display before it is bloodily dissected and rendered horrifyingly unrecognizable.”
Review: S. Craig Zahler’s ‘Bone Tomahawk’
“Meeting the specifications of both Western and Horror halfway, Bone Tomahawk gracefully undermines each in pursuit of lending credence to the other.”
Review: Guy Maddin’s ‘The Forbidden Room’
“Phantasmagoric and heady, The Forbidden Room is a film torn from the past, as Guy Maddin journeys even further into his own imagination, drawing out an original and enthralling journey through a kaleidoscope of different locales, time periods and genres.”
London Film Festival 2015 Review: Johnnie To’s ‘Office’
“Office makes you wonder if more thriller-leaning filmmakers should make a foray into the musical genre. Michael Mannโs Gypsy, anyone?”
Review: Cary Joji Fukunaga’s ‘Beasts of No Nation’
“As an empathetic machine, Beasts of No Nation tries too hard to convey the unimaginable, leaving in its place a sense of cold insouciance towards a system that is shown to be irreparably broken.”
London Film Festival 2015 Review: Karyn Kusama’s ‘The Invitation’
“Thanks to the skilled hand of director Kusama (Girlfight, Jenniferโs Body), The Invitation is a deeply uncomfortable but also eerily funny skewering of the hostility that can lurk under the veil of hospitality.”
FNC 2015 Review: ‘Transfixed’ (Alon Kol, 2015)
“The film reveals the importance of communication in love, but perhaps even more, the importance of empathy and understanding.”
FNC 2015 Review: ‘Blonde aux yeux bleus’ (Pascal Plante, 2015)
“Blonde aux yeux bleus never feels anything but natural and organic, and it is working in the service of great and contradictory emotions.”
VOD Review: Todd Strauss-Schulson’s ‘The Final Girls’
“A surprisingly funny and sharp-witted caricature of mass-produced horror, The Final Girls is the product of cult film iconography and our culture’s obsession with the ironically good.”
London Film Festival 2015 Review: Bao Nguyenโs โLive from New York!โ
“The documentary suggests that the makers of Saturday Night Live, in all likelihood, probably donโt have contempt for their audience. Itโs harder to say thatโs the case for the team behind Live from New York!”
VOD Review: Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel’s ‘Finders Keepers’
“Plunging into the depths of love, loss, addiction, family and life aspirations, Finders Keepers is far more than the story of a smoked left foot.”
London Film Festival 2015 Review: Hรจctor Hernรกndez Vicens’ ‘The Corpse of Anna Fritz’
“Where this slick and sick debut falters is in its leanings towards repetition, with the same arguments played out over and over, and even some of the same set-piece conceits seeing repeat play.”
Review: Douglas Tirola’s ‘Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon’
“Expanding on the standard documentary outline, director Douglas Tirola strings a series of in-depth interviews together with original National Lampoon magazine artwork, album excerpts and stage show footage — providing enough tits, drugs and comedy to satiate fans young and old.”
Review: Andrew Haigh’s “45 Years”
“45 Years is unconcerned with the โcutenessโ of love — Haigh wants to know what makes it tick.”
Review: David Chen’s ‘The Primary Instinct’
“A remarkably pervasive journey through one man’s search for meaning in his own life, The Primary Instinct captures an utterly captivating performance in a very standard way.”
Review: Baltasar Kormรกkur’s ‘Everest’
“As impressive and excruciating as Hall and his team’s journey was, Everest fails to capture the specifics.”
VOD Review: ‘The Overnight’ Is a Sincere Sex Farce
“The Buรฑuelian meets the Duplassian in The Overnight, a chamber comedy of social and sexual manners from director Patrick Brice (2014โs Creep).”
Review: Brian Helgeland’s ‘Legend’
“Little more than an extravagant, blood-soaked and alcohol-fueled story, Legend fulfills its title; an overinflated piece of bar room folklore better told over a cold pint of Guinness (or several)”