“Unfortunately, Kriya’s script is the weakest link. Much of the dialogue sounds like it was lifted straight from a soap opera, and the film occasionally veers into melodrama, which isn’t particularly becoming for a folk horror film set almost entirely in a single location.”
“Although the events in ‘The Virgin Suicides’ may not be presented through an innately nostalgic lens, they become a binding source of nostalgia by viewing the film 20 years after its initial wide release.”
“Point of view and selfhood have assumed for Kaufman a place of great consequence from ‘Being John Malkovich’ to ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ to ‘Anomalisa,’ and ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ is a remarkable extension.”
“‘Lapsis’ offers the intriguing and hopeful possibility that our technologically dependent future may not be so bad after all.”
“Even seen without the lens of current events, ‘Alone’ is a harrowing experience that earns its power by being uncomfortably credible.”
“It may seem strange to qualify Mertens’ audaciously original production as ‘horror’ when it has no gory set pieces, jump scares, monsters or special effects. Yet, despite a lack of these things, ‘Time of Moulting’ is very much a horror film.”
“‘Lucky’ is a rallying cry for women everywhere to fight back, to keep speaking up and to go it alone when all else fails.”
“‘Dinner in America’ is a special movie with a genuinely punk rock feel and a charmingly odd couple at its heart. There are enough laughs and swoon-worthy moments to mark it out as the best, and weirdest, rom-com in years.”
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Choked’ Screenwriter Nihit Brave
“Through a graceful use of Mozart’s music, ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ urges the audience to question their lives and unavoidable deaths.”
“The virility of the unwanted foreigner is a typical focal point for the average xenophobe.”
“‘Sputnik’ is a thoughtful, knotty sci-fi thriller that’s firmly character-driven and also boasts a horrifyingly beautiful creature.”
“The most remarkable feature of ‘Tokyo Vampire Hotel’ is its timeliness. Though the series was released in 2017, it takes place in 2021, and something about it feels distinctly ‘2020s,’ distinctly of the cinema to come, if not distinctly of 2020 and the present moment.”
“It’s a fascinating experience to see ‘Aparisyon’ via Locarno’s ‘Open Doors’ strand, where it is presented as a key work in understanding contemporary Filipino cinema.”
“‘Memories of Underdevelopment’ shares with ‘Pixote’ a cautious destabilization, a sense of how long can this last, of tipping points, radical reform and the capricious aftermath.”
Marshall Shaffer Interviews ‘A Girl Missing’ Director Kôji Fukada
“Jarman’s mix of time, history, memory, fantasy and dreams in ‘Jubilee’ is ultimately a hopeful warning for the future.”
“As much as I love a good story, the best movies always transport me, in an intangible sense, through the base elements.”
“As a character study, Miloš Forman’s feature directorial debut presents a realistic vision of a boy’s attempt to come of age; a path full of setbacks without a tidy resolution.”
“When ‘Make Up’ reaches the light at the end of its twisted tunnel, its culmination is gratifying and sumptuously-realised.”