Crime Scene #15: ‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ – Belgrade Is Not a Serious City
“‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ is somewhere between the avant-garde and the absurd: a perfect description of Belgrade itself.”
Review: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’ Is a Highbrow Music Video Experience That Doesn’t Owe You Anything
“A film designed as a long-form music video doesn’t need heavy exposition to reach its ultimate truth, as ‘Challengers’ communicates the most important facts through sound design, reaction shots and shared character moments.”
TV Review: ‘The Veil’
“Despite the contemporary references to ISIS and the ongoing refugee crisis, there’s nothing particularly timely about ‘The Veil,’ and any relevant social commentary is incidental.”
Review: Tynan DeLong’s ‘Dad & Step-Dad’
“Tynan DeLong’s ‘Dad & Step-Dad’ finds comedic gold in awkward silence and silly stare-downs.”
Review: Louise Archambault’s ‘Irena’s Vow’
“Unfortunately, it takes about 90 minutes for ‘Irena’s Vow’ to find its aesthetic and narrative groove.”
Review: Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘La Chimera’
“‘La Chimera’ will hopefully inspire movie lovers of all ages to learn more about not only Italian cinema, but also the specificities of regional (and rural) Italian culture.”
Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’
“‘Civil War’ is a lot smarter than meets the eye, and the film is far more incisive in its cultural critique than its director’s simplistic interview comments may make it seem.”
Review: ‘Parish’ Season 1
“At six episodes, ‘Parish’ isn’t quite satisfying. It’s hard to say if it’s too long or not long enough. Maybe it’s the muggy American gothic New Orleans locations that made me err on the side of wishing it were longer.”
Review: Robert Lorenz’s ‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’
“‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’ truly sings during its quietest moments.”
Review: Arkasha Stevenson’s ‘The First Omen’
“What ‘The First Omen’ lacks in innovation it makes up for in boldness, pushing familiar supernatural genre tropes about the secret relationship between the Church and the Devil to ideological extremes.”
Review: George Henry Horton’s ‘Project Dorothy’
“‘Project Dorothy’ has nothing meaningful to say about the lingering AI threat to humanity.”
Review: Helena Coan’s ‘The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane’
“Part of the film’s effectiveness lies in the iceberg-style storytelling, which respects the audience’s intelligence by showing and addressing crime scene evidence without detailing the grisly specifics.”
BFI Flare Review: Sacha Polak’s ‘Silver Haze’
“Queerness that isn’t defined by its queerness is always a green flag, but what makes ‘Silver Haze’ an enriching addition to the lesbian canon of cinema is its rugged ties to the British working class.”
Manchester Film Festival Review: Dan Pringle’s ‘Die Before You Die’
“‘Die Before You Die’ is a solid independent horror film that, in its best moments, balances effective satire with claustrophobic terror.”
Review: Mike Cheslik’s ‘Hundreds of Beavers’
“‘Hundreds of Beavers’ stands on its own as one of the best rollercoaster-like films of the 2020s, but there’s also potential for a silent cinema-themed series starring Tews and Graves.”
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.”