“Sound of Violence’s nonchalant depictions of violence, which occur with such obfuscation due to uncoordinated quick-cut editing and color filters, render it a fangless drama with un-engaging sequences of killing and torture.”
“Bryan Fogel’s new documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is unsurprisingly hard-hitting, but it’s the context for macro-scale geopolitics that ‘The Dissident’ communicates so well.”
“Both emotionally and narratively, ‘The Man Standing Next’ is an easy story to get lost in.”
“Rather than using the violence itself as a punchline, ‘Voice of Silence’ builds a comedy of manners out of Chang-bok and his colleagues’ sensibilities.”
“The foregrounding of Mohamedou’s experiences and perspective — and, by extension, all those subjected to Guantánamo’s purpose — is the fuel in The Mauritanian’s engine.”
Fedor Tot on Pedro Almodóvar’s Collaborations with Antonio Banderas
“Swab’s personal experience bleeds into every frame of ‘Body Brokers,’ making it a taxing watch at times, but its true power lies in the details…”
“‘Prime Time’ is at its most energetic and engaging during the early scenes; a setup familiar enough for any viewer of Sidney Lumet’s ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ or the many films he inspired.”
“‘John and the Hole’ may be too frustratingly vague to really connect, but it seems to challenge its audience from a place of urgency…”
“Making a gothic horror story about the creation of a gothic horror story is a worthy and potentially enlightening idea, but Unkel fumbles the ball at every turn with ‘A Nightmare Wakes.'”
“The most surprising thing about ‘In the Earth’ may be just how much of a return it is to the pitch black humour that characterised Wheatley’s earliest films.”
“‘No Man’s Land,’ Conor Allyn’s earthy effort at a serious revisionist western, is a film of good intentions that goes awry when it attempts to unpack any of its ideas.”
“In Kurosawa’s noir films, characters struggle to move beyond loss — personal, financial and national — only to find that more loss awaits them.”
“An exceedingly dark and violent survival horror film, ‘Hunted’ will make sure you never again go out alone at night.”
“Benson and Moorhead’s typically dark, cynical tone is well-suited to the material until a too-neat ending tries to retcon ‘Synchronic’ into something else in the most jarring way possible.”
“Fennell’s uproariously funny film showcases a powerhouse Carey Mulligan in what could very well be her career-best performance.”
“‘Freaky’ is uneven, but it has moments of magic.”
“The ‘Poltergeist’ films will remain eternally relevant as long as America and other countries keep making the same tragic mistakes over and over again, building their own haunted houses for spirits to eventually consume from within.”
“Kurosawa was rarely more bitter and dejected than he is here, crafting a sprawling noir tragedy from Shakespeare’s text, grappling desperately with identity in the nightmare of faceless modernity.”
“Santa Sangre’s themes of empathy and hope are uniquely personal for Jodorowsky, and they help bring the film’s horrors and bloodshed into perspective…”