Coming-of-Age Drama ‘I’ll Be Gone in June’ Subverts the Narrative Tradition
In her 9/11-era drama, I’ll Be Gone in June, Rivilis hits perfect tension between how life moves so fast, and yet, so slow.
Film Review
‘Renoir’ Faces the Uglier Parts of Grieving
Chie Hayakawa’s deeply personal Renoir is a harsh and intimate portrait of childhood, examining a grief that arrives without clear form or catharsis.
‘Backrooms’ Is Horror Cinema’s ‘Lost’
Kane Parsons’ uncanny creeper Backrooms is a Borgesian labyrinth of thrilling yet ultimately disappointing potential. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Silent Film Star Corinne Griffith Brightens the Garden
One of silent film’s most beautiful stars, Corinne Griffith glitters across Lewis Mileston’s deceptive The Garden of Eden.
What Upholds Kokuho’s Mystique?
Highly praised, to a sycophantic degree, one might argue, Sang-il Lee’s lengthy drama, Kokuho, fails the artfulness of its subject.
‘House of Cards’ Is a Faux-Hitchcock Thriller
House of Cards looks like a million francs in Techniscope and Technicolor and plays like a picture Hitchcock forgot to make.
The Terrible Force of Kim Nguyen’s ‘Saigon Story’
Kim Nguyen’s Saigon Story revisits Eddie Adams’ iconic execution photograph and follows the families still living with what the Vietnam War (aka the American War) – and that image – exposed.
‘The Delivery Line’ Gently Returns to You
Nance Ackerman’s The Delivery Line follows five midwives working where birth is surrounded by danger, poverty, displacement, and neglect. The brightness is small, but it is there.
‘The Second Twin’ Ooh-La-Las the 1960s French Murder Mystery
As a whodunit, The Second Twin is a nifty tease whose resolution might surprise you, unless you pull yourself away from the dazzle long enough to analyze the story.
‘A Yard of Jackals’ and the Sound of Dictatorship
Sound editing is crucial in Chilean horror film A Yard of Jackals; we see nothing (thankfully), yet we can imagine in rich detail everything.
‘The Christophers’ Is So Soderbergh
In his most predictably unpredictable manner, Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers explores how the most frustrating chapters in our lives can lead to unexpected, meaningful events.
Sound of Falling’s Slow Exhaustion of Memory
In Mascha Schilinski’s moody psychological drama Sound of Falling, we sense that a place can outlast the lives shaped inside it: what happened there does not disappear.