“Some minor continuity issues in ‘A Photographic Memory’ point to the first-time director’s lack of experience, yet they oddly work in favor of the established mood and tone via the (mostly) outstanding editing.”
“Byrne paces ‘Dangerous Animals’ perfectly, hitting all the scariest beats with the requisite care and attention to detail…”
“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.”
“‘Knock Out Blonde’ isn’t the kind of documentary that wants to paint a complicated picture of its subject — which, paradoxically, would be the kind of boundary-pushing representation we need now.”
“‘All Happy Families’ is a warm family drama. What the film lacks in originality, it makes up for in sincerity.”
“Perry fully (and successfully) commits to various comedic bits in ‘Pavements’ while documenting Pavement’s 1999 break-up and eventual 2022 reunion.”
“In ‘I Love You Forever,’ David and Kalani have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the current zeitgeist, injecting a much-needed youthful zest into a well-worn genre with an artful eye and incisive wit.”
“What sets ‘Invader’ apart from more conventional stalker horror films is its feverish aesthetic that owes more to the manic energy of 1970s and 80s exploitation cinema than modern genre trends.”
“Love on Trial’s opening two acts integrate personal drama into a subtly scathing social critique, but Fukada’s narrative loses power when the heroine must contend with the dark price of fame.”
“Michael Casey and Paddy Murphy’s ‘Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat’ is a winsome coming-of-age film with surgical wit.”
“‘I Only Rest in the Storm’ is a succinctly angry film in large part because Pinho knows it doesn’t offer a reassuring explanation about its myriad themes.”
“‘The Heirloom’ doesn’t follow a conventional climactic structure, and its brittle, dry humor and abstract tone may not appeal to everyone. However, Petrie’s inventive vision is admirable…”
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
“By the end of Carroll’s frustrating and stylistically unambitious film, it seems that there was a deeper, more interesting story just out of reach.”
“‘Swing Bout’ doesn’t establish enough of a backstory for any of the key players for them to register beyond the individual performances…”
“Perhaps if ‘Crawdaddy’ played into the idea of an unremarkably ordinary man becoming a sex symbol for comedy, the sillier tone elsewhere wouldn’t feel as disparate from the rest.”
“‘Vulcanizadora’ is an astonishing coming-of-age tale for adults-in-crisis.”
“Unapologetically queer, sexy, messy and celebratory all at once, by refusing to conform to mainstream norms and instead leaning into the chaos, ‘Queens of Drama’ is utterly transcendent.”
“It’s a shame that the conversations ‘The Fishing Place’ will provoke just might be far more substantial than anything within the film itself.”
“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.”