“‘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.”
“‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ is as thoughtful and sensitive as it is goofy. It brims with the sort of amazement that can reawaken forgotten feelings, and resuscitate a heart clogged by ennui.”
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Choked’ Screenwriter Nihit Brave
“After a rough decade out in the wild, Oberst is home and doing what he knows best.”
“Through a graceful use of Mozart’s music, ‘She Dies Tomorrow’ urges the audience to question their lives and unavoidable deaths.”
“It may sound strange to call a documentary about fans of a gory horror franchise ‘sweet,’ but that’s exactly what ‘Hail to the Deadites’ is.”
“Given that documentaries are being pushed into hybrid spaces, and that many modern animators are covering morbid subject matter, these 12 short films give an example of contemporary moving image work pushing at cinema’s comfort zones.”
“The virility of the unwanted foreigner is a typical focal point for the average xenophobe.”
“If failure is the greatest teacher, then Peter Medak has earned his doctorate with ‘The Ghost of Peter Sellers.'”
“This adaptation of ‘Brave New World’ has little new to say, largely because its source material did the job so effectively years ago.”
“Film criticism is so vital not because it’s a service, but because it’s a tool — a way for each person to arrive at the final word on each film they see from the critic that matters most: themselves.”
“Whether enjoyed as a fresh musical offering or an affectionate archival excursion, ‘Candid’ is an easy album to appreciate. Its core interplay, a conversation between the old and the new, is the key to its success.”
“‘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.”
“‘Limbo’ lacks some of the irreverent charm that drew listeners to Aminé in the first place, but there’s still plenty of perceptiveness and creativity at the heart of his approach even in this less certain, more contemplative next phase.”
“‘The Go-Go’s’ boasts a treasure chest full of archival content in all shapes and sizes, and the imagery almost always complements the anecdotes told by the subjects with delightful detail.”
“There was nothing else like ‘CREEM’ back then, and there’s still nothing like it now. That’s not only a testament to the importance of the magazine, it’s also a sad commentary on what’s lacking in modern music criticism.”
“‘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.”
“If Ferris Bueller and his day off resemble something else universal, it is liberation. In the context of the journey, this is best understood as the ability to be in transit.”