‘Death of a Unicorn’ Substitutes Hot Splatter with Soft Satire
The satire in the Grand-Guignol fantasy Death of a Unicorn is not barbed enough to really skewer viewers with its point about greed.
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti is a freelance writer, editor, consultant, and aspiring flâneur. A member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Online Film Critics Society, he has been published in the Chicago Tribune, The Hollywood Reporter, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Publishers Weekly, and Rain Taxi Review of Books, among other outlets. His books include Six Seasons and a Movie: How Community Broke Television, Monty Python FAQ, The Ballot Box: 10 Presidential Elections That Changed American History, and The Sci-Fi Movie Guide.
Bob Dylan Film ‘A Complete Unknown’ Is a Folk anti-Western
In wandering hero terms, Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown is less a George Stevens’ Western like Shane and more an Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo – with guitars.
The Future Isn’t What It Was
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Sundance Film Festival 2025 Is at a Crossroads
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Alfred Hitchcock At the Peak of His Skill
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Mati Diop’s Documentary ‘Dahomey’ Complicates Colonialism
Mati Diop’s Dahomey documentary about the 2021 return of looted artworks to Benin looks more to the present and future than the past.
Filmmaker Lana Wilson Delves into the Psyche of Psychics
Lana Wilson’s soulful, patient, appropriately skeptical documentary takes psychics at their word but also peers behind the curtain in revealing ways.
Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Is a Trivial Goof Pretending at Ambition
Francis Ford Coppola’s bonkers “fable” about the clash of dreams and cynicism, Megalopolis, has a potent but unfounded belief in its importance.
Neal Stephenson’s Thriller ‘Polostan’ Is a Wild Ride Through 1930s America
Neal Stephenson’s thrilling and slow-burn historical thriller Polostan presents the 1930s as a calamitous carnival ride building inexorably toward Hiroshima.
Quirky Comedy ‘Between the Temples’ Delights in the Unconventional Types
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‘Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World’ Is a Stinging Comedy of Banal Chaos
Radu Jude’s gonzo satire of post-Soviet Romania, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, hits a sweet spot between Luis Buñuel and Béla Tarr.
‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Drips with Danger and Desire
Rose Glass drenches Love Lies Bleeding in sensation and texture, as if she dragged the film through pools of viscera on the floor of a Foley sound effects studio.