“As a first feature, ‘We Are from There’ is an assured piece of work. Tanios paces the documentary well, and maintains a consistent and observant tone when it would be easier to lean on the sentimentality or urgency of the assembled footage.”
“By seemingly stripping the sacredness from the cenotes, and forcing the sinkholes to be penetrated by the eye of the camera, Oda appears to deconstruct the documentary’s premise: there’s no mystery to unearth…”
“What’s consistently left out of the ‘Cheer’ conversation is a discussion of the precarious tension of love and exploitation between coach Monica Aldama and the team.”
“In her mysterious way, Hatidze’s character is as gorgeous and singular as the breathtaking images collected by cinematographers Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma.”
“LSFF’s Oscillations strand is one of the more immersive parts of the festival, with each film exploring social norms, bodily autonomy and the intersections of life.”
“The Houses in Motion strand breaks the mould in successfully exploring how concepts of life and death, home and away and physical and mental states metamorphose and develop within their own spaces.”
“There’s no telling the story of Khodorkovsky without telling the story of Russia, and it’s for that reason that ‘Citizen K’ is rather invaluable to people like this writer, Americans of a certain age who perhaps aren’t well versed in Russian history.”
“Beauvais does what the essay filmmaker ought do: he appropriates film to his own ends. The combination of words and pictures rings nary a false note.”
“Faced with the death of its utopian hopes, the remnants of America’s counterculture split into two tendencies: the pastoral and the criminal. Its despondency was turned inwards and outwards; one side sought to build alternative structures in line with a higher authority, while the other strove to rearrange the wreckage of the existing order.”
“Reflecting and refracting the ongoing conversations around everything from the salary inequity between male and female soccer players to the alleged child sex trafficking hellscape perpetuated by Jeffrey Epstein, ‘Maiden’ can be read as both time capsule and time bomb.”
“Whether they intended to or not, the ‘Gimme Shelter’ filmmakers had tapped into and exposed a diabolical soul and a deep-seated hostility. The sun that had fleetingly shone so brightly was starting to set.”