Berlin Critics’ Week: Woche der Kritik Part 2 — Subversions
Woche der Kritik 2026 (Berlin Critics’ Week): Soham Gadre on ‘Loynes’ and ‘Turgaud’
Berlin Critics’ Week: Woche der Kritik 2026 — Try Outs, Simulations and Performance
Woche der Kritik 2026 (Berlin Critics’ Week): Soham Gadre on ‘Beautiful and Neat Room, ‘Worry Time’ and ‘Fiction Contract’
Moments of Paradise: Intimacy and Place in Derek Jarman’s Home Movies
“Jarman extended the logic of the home movie beyond production into exhibition, keeping his films mutable and deeply tied to a social and spatial context.”
Building the New Queer Canon #9: Richard Linklater’s ‘Blue Moon’ and the 2026 Oscars
“‘Blue Moon’ effortlessly resists tropes of queer suffering and troubled artists to become another delightful hangout character study from the American master of them.”
Hail ‘Krampus’: 10 Years of Michael Dougherty’s Festive Favorite
“‘Krampus’ is an outlier when it comes to festive horror and, in the decade since the movie’s release, nothing has threatened its throne.”
Building the New Queer Canon #9: Harry Lighton’s ‘Pillion’
“Look past the chastity cages, pup masks and Prince Albert piercings and you’ll find one of the most incisive, painfully relatable stories about modern queer romance to have arrived of late.”
Building the New Queer Canon #8: Siobhan McCarthy’s ‘She’s the He’
“‘She’s the He’ is a successful attempt at not just carving out a space for LGBTQ identity amidst the overbearingly heterosexual narrative tropes, but also bending those tropes so they can fit into a tale of trans awakening…”
Anatomy of a Scene: ‘When Comedy Went to School’ (Borscht Belt Film Fest)
“‘When Comedy Went to School’ is a must-see for not only American Jews, but also for anyone who appreciates the art of stand-up comedy.”
Twists, Turns, Frights and Some Personal Growth: ‘Goosebumps’ Still Rules at 10
“‘Goosebumps’ stands as further proof that there’s real demand for scary movies for kids…”
A Beautiful Tragedy: Reimagining the Blacklist
“Even the most cynical satire is half in love with the object of its barbs; there is a part of every constrained creative that loves their shackles and will make great play of rattling them.”
Building the New Queer Canon #7: Carmen Emmi’s ‘Plainclothes’
“‘Plainclothes’ isn’t necessarily a kinky film — it just does better than most tales of life in the closet to explain why this can be more alluring than coming out and finding somewhere to make these connections in the open.”
Building the New Queer Canon #6: Ethan Coen’s ‘Honey Don’t!’
“Aside from the half-assed plotting, the biggest flaw of ‘Honey Don’t!’ is that even with Cooke’s involvement, the sexuality of the protagonists lacks any sort of perceptive depth, with no inter-character dynamic feeling more lived-in than the plot needs it to be.”
The ‘Night of the Juggler’ 4K Restoration Highlights Why We Love New York-Set Movies
“Robert Butler’s ‘Night of the Juggler’ isn’t the best New York City film ever made, but it might be the best cinematic representation of the location.”
Building the New Queer Canon #5: Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex/Dreams/Love Trilogy
“Gradually, the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy redefines queerness as a process of self-discovery which can always evolve, rather than an ill-fitting label you’re stuck with after a single formative experience.”
Tightrope Walker: Dirk Bogarde’s Post-War Rebellion
“Rejection is the purest form of rebellion. Bogarde was never embraced by Hollywood in large part because ambivalence is not a bankable asset. He left too many questions unanswered.”
Building the New Queer Canon #4: Louise Weard’s ‘Castration Movie’
“Weard’s anthology series is shaping up to be one of the decade’s most impactful queer texts.”
The Restoration of Marva Nabili’s ‘The Sealed Soil’ Unearths a Gem of Women-Centric Cinema in Iran
“Nabili’s ‘The Sealed Soil’ can be seen as a precursor of the minimalist styles that came to define so much of modern Iranian cinema.”
On Dark and Lonely Waters: PIFs and Rural Landscapes as Sites of Danger
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
Too Terrified to Log Off: 10 Years Later, ‘Unfriended’ Is Still Ruthlessly Effective
“Taken purely as a cheap thrills style horror movie, ‘Unfriended’ is hugely effective. But as an unflinching denouncement of peer pressure and cyberbullying, it’s downright terrifying.”
The Unforgiving Concrete: Lodge Kerrigan’s Cinema of Estrangement
“In Lodge Kerrigan’s first three features, he asks audiences to consider those left in the wake of his central characters…”