Alonso Ruizpalacios ‘A Cop Movie’ Walks a Thin Genre Line
Alonso Ruizpalacios’ sort of documentary, ‘A Cop Movie’ (Una película de policías), takes on the challenge of presenting what real-life policing looks like.
film review
Alfred Hitchcock Plays with Trains in ‘Number Seventeen’
Alfred Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen isn’t a great film but a good one that reminds us of what a casually obsessive craftsman he was.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Wildly Rocks Multiple Worlds
In a world where everybody knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, universes are bound to go crazy, and that makes Spider-Man: No Way Home fantastic entertainment.
When a Body Meets a Body: Frankenstein’s Daughter Acts Out Her 1950s Issues
Frankenstein’s daughter, in modern parlance, is some kind of proto-“trans” creation of a woman’s mind within a patched-together male body. This is heady stuff.
Raindance 2021: Body Image Horror ‘Shapeless’ Explores the Anorexic Mind
Award-winning director Amanda Aldana’s Shapeless is a sensitive study of anorexia and the power of the mind over the body.
‘Ratcatcher’ Shows People, Not Poverty Porn
Lynne Ramsay’s gutting, eerily beautiful first film, Ratcatcher, shows a director refusing to let the impoverished circumstances of her characters define them.
Raindance 2021: Don’t Let the Protagonist of Horror/Thriller Where’s Rose Seduce You
John Mathis’ Where’s Rose, which premiered at Raindance Film Festival 2021, explores the misogynistic darkness behind the charismatic personality.
Film-Noir Thriller ‘The Amazing Mr. X’ Shimmers with Beautiful Spookery
Directed by low-budget maestro Bernard Vorhaus, the restored film-noir ‘The Amazin Mr. X’ is an unpredictable little specimen of spookery-pokery.
Marvel’s ‘Eternals’: Haven’t We Seen This Story Before?
The cast of Eternals may be the broodiest Marvel characters to date, but that’s about the only “new” thing about this film.
BFI LFF: Who Is the Dreamer in the Hallucinogenic ‘Earwig’?
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s subversive Earwig is rooted in the dark origins of fairytales – before they were pacified for modern childhood consumption.
BFI LFF: ‘Boiling Point’ Turns the Heat Up on Work-Life Pressure
Director Philip Barantini’s one-take drama Boiling Point explores the tipping point the modern “rat race” is pushing us toward.
BFI LFF: Terence Davies’ ‘Benediction’ Sees a War-Haunted Generation Through a Poet’s Eyes
Terence Davies’ Benediction effectively evokes wartime suffering via British World War I poet and author Siegfried Sassoon’s story.