BFI Flare Review: Luke Willis’ ‘Lady Like’
“A unique sense of intimacy arguably makes ‘Lady Like’ the strongest of all the ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ documentaries produced so far, but that doesn’t mean it is flawless in the wider medium.”
Review: Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s ‘Femme’
“‘Femme’ is lean, mean, nasty, challenging, knotty, uncomfortable and disorientating — often all at once.”
Review: Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s ‘Baltimore’
“Poots isn’t just good in ‘Baltimore’ — she’s breathtakingly brilliant.”
Review: Marc Schießer’s ‘Trunk: Locked In’
“Schießer’s Amazon film is an imaginative thriller, one that requires the performers to think visually like the director.”
Review: Teresa Sutherland’s ‘Lovely, Dark, and Deep’
“‘Lovely, Dark, and Deep’ teases a bright filmmaking future for Sutherland while spotlighting one of the horror genre’s most promising stars.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Emma Westenberg’s ‘Bleeding Love’
“Emma Westenberg’s father-daughter drama ‘Bleeding Love’ is a travel movie that sticks closely to previous genre routes.”
Crime Scene #13: ‘Memories of Murder’ and Rainy Remembrances
“It’s a sense of Korean specificity that defines ‘Memories of Murder,’ which is still the best of Bong’s films.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Sean Garrity’s ‘The Burning Season’
“The prickly, nuanced performances from Chernick and Canning help drive The Burning Season’s mystery.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Viggo Mortensen’s ‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’
“Overall, Mortensen succeeds in delivering an intricate and often untold period tale. ‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ presents a window into the new filmmaker’s cinematic intentions, suggesting that moviegoers can expect thoughtful and unique projects on the horizon.”
Glasgow Film Festival Review: Rose Glass’ ‘Love Lies Bleeding’
“‘Love Lies Bleeding’ throws some impressive punches, but not every blow lands.”
Review: Tom Schulman’s ‘Double Down South’
“Lili Simmons plays it perfectly in ‘Double Down South,’ a cinematic descendant of the modern gambling classics ‘Rounders’ and ‘Mississippi Grind.'”
Review: Julio Torres’ ‘Problemista’
“The joy of ‘Problemista’ comes from the specificity of its humor, as every other line reveals another new shade of Torres’ enchanting window on the world, with each phrasing choice another morsel to marvel over.”
Berlin International Film Festival Review: Meryam Joobeur’s ‘Who Do I Belong To’
“‘Who Do I Belong To’ is social realist cinema at its stodgiest and most self-serious.”
Berlin International Film Festival Reviews: ‘Betânia’ and ‘Dormir De Olhos Abertos’
“On their own, ‘Betânia’ and ‘Dormir De Olhos Abertos’ represent excellent achievements — but taken together, the two productions provide an excellent account of gentrification and globalization in the northeast of Brazil.”
Review: Jessamyn Ansary and Joyce Mishaan’s ‘Lee Fields: Faithful Man’
“Shifting timelines in ‘Lee Fields: Faithful Man’ spotlight the subject’s fighter mentality and relevance in 2020s pop culture.”
Review: Abhilash Shetty’s ‘Koli Taal’
“It’s amazing what an emerging writer-director can accomplish by staying true to the basic elements of filmmaking and then building upon the foundation by applying a creative vision to a relatively simple yet regionally specific story.”
Review: Bertrand Mandico’s ‘She Is Conann’
“The main issue with a film as defiantly arthouse as ‘She Is Conann’ is that if the story isn’t engaging in its own right, everything else that’s wrong becomes increasingly more obvious.”
Berlin International Film Festival Review: Roman Bondarchuk’s ‘The Editorial Office’
“I hope the future of Ukrainian cinema looks like ‘The Editorial Office.'”
Review: Matteo Garrone’s ‘Io Capitano’
“‘Io Capitano’ feels carefully researched in its subject matter, while the narrative itself is constructed with an intensity far more characteristic of Garrone’s genre work.”
Review: James Bamford’s ‘Air Force One Down’
“‘Air Force One Down’ stalls during the middle act but ultimately finds it groove, choppy as the writing may be overall.”