Review: Eliza Hittman’s ‘Beach Rats’
“Hittman has created a powerful, sensual film about identity, loss and the complicated space that often lies between desire and expectation.”
Review: Albert Maysles’ ‘In Transit’
“‘In Transit’ attests to the possibility of human connection and serves as a reminder to the insights Albert Maysles has given us over the last 50 years.”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Andrea De Sica’s ‘Children of the Night’
“De Sica has mentioned ‘The Shining’ and ‘Dead Poets Society’ as influences, and ‘Children of the Night’ is at its best when it favors the former.”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Roberto Andò’s ‘The Confessions’
“Sleek visuals and cryptic dialogue aren’t enough to save a film that’s essentially a truncated season of ‘House of Cards.'”
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2017 – Edoardo De Angelis’ ‘Indivisible’
“‘Indivisible’ is a fantastically imaginative coming-of-age tale, an opera of sweeping creativity and a universal human love story.”
Review: Azazel Jacobs’ ‘The Lovers’
“According to Jacobs, romantic love is a negative equation wherein passion plus time equals complacency.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán’s ‘Sambá’
“‘Sambá’ succeeds most when it draws inspiration from its setting and hooks the audiences with hard questions about crime and responsibility.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell’s ‘ELIÁN’
“It’s a miracle that Golden and McDonnell were able to create such a coherent document out of what appears to be bureaucratic chaos.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Guillaume Canet’s ‘Rock’n Roll’
“Canet’s performance seems to come from a place of real insecurity, and the resulting film plays out like an externalized catharsis.”
Tribeca Film Festival Reviews: Men with Guns – ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Hondros’
“What ‘Sweet Virginia’ and ‘Hondros’ have in common is the notion that men with guns aren’t as brave or bloodthirsty as they seem.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Drew Xanthopoulos’ ‘The Sensitives’
“‘The Sensitives’ is a gentle and affecting window into the isolated prison cell that becomes a sensitive person’s life.”
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Zefrey Throwell and Josephine Decker’s ‘Flames’
“At times, Zefrey and Josephine seem more in love with their own clever filmmaking than they are with each other.”
The Anti-Romance of Agnès Varda’s ‘La Pointe Courte’
“The married couple’s conversation in ‘La Pointe Courte’ is a spellbinding predecessor to Richard Linklater’s ‘Before Trilogy’ and further proof that no great film needs ‘action’ to be great.”
Review: Onur Tukel’s ‘Catfight’
“What ‘Catfight’ lacks in sanity, it makes up for in the sheer exuberance of Sandra Oh and Anne Heche.”
Éric Rohmer’s Battle of the Sexes
“Rohmer cares more about posing questions than providing the comfort of a conclusion.”
Review: Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan’s ‘Strike a Pose’
“Recollecting lessons learned is not the same as actual learning.”
Review: Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’
“For all its violence and grandiosity, it stands as an impressively filmed indictment against religious persecution.”
A Mother’s Twisted Love: Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s ‘Evolution’
“Elliptical and predominantly visual, ‘Evolution’ will frustrate any viewer unwilling to let go of common sense.”
Violently Tender: The Secret Humanism of Vincent Gallo’s ‘Buffalo ’66’
“Though bleak and at times brutal, ‘Buffalo ’66’ manages to evoke a world of sensitivity that’s, dare I say, rather feminine.”
Terrence Malick’s ‘Badlands’ Is a Great American Love Story
“Some movies are so good that when they’re over, you almost expect the whole film industry to shut down.”