The gift Iranian writer-director Jafar Panahi has given to us all is no accident. Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident uses a very simple scenario to ask unanswerable questions about what makes a person good. It does this by offering four people a chance many dream of: the …
You wait your whole life for two female directors to adapt books written by women about artists who are thunderstruck by the prison of motherhood, then two come along in the same year. In December 2024 Marielle Heller gave us Nightbitch, and now this year’s Cannes Film Festival has given …
Sirât is the rare movie that should be seen absolutely cold. I mean it, stop reading this review right now until after you have seen it, then come back for when you need someone to hold your hand afterwards. For Sirât manages to deliver one of the greatest shocks ever …
Everybody knows the greatest thing about Wes Anderson’s movies is their sense of style. Style is the tool he uses to bring lightness to dark and complex subjects such as grief, the creeping threat of fascism and being an insufferable young person. The staging and blocking, the centering of images, …
For his next trick – not his follow-up to Anora, since he did not direct – Sean Baker has co-written, edited and co-produced this Taiwanese movie about a family of three women trying to make it in Taipei. The director (and co-writer) is Shih-Ching Tsou, who has worked with Mr. …
Caravan (Karavan) is the debut feature by Zuzana Kichnerová and is another selection of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film narrates the story of Ester (Anna Geislerová), a forty-five-year-old woman who spends most of her time caring for her special needs son, David (David …
Everyone wants to root for a sports comeback story. The Last Rodeo, from director Jon Avnet with a script by Avnet, Derek Presley, and star Neal McDonough, sits well within this well-known and well-loved subgenre. McDonough stars as Joe Wainright, a former rodeo champion bull rider who settled down to …
It’s inevitable. With every new live-action remake released by Disney, the same cycle of controversy, ridiculous boycotts, and deafening noise from hate groups and internet users who can’t handle any deviation from the established norm repeats itself – even if that “norm” is just their highly romanticized childhood memories. Casting …
Stories about colonization seldom humanize the colonizers, and for good reason. Focusing on the victims of abuse should always be the priority. However, there is value in examining a colonizer’s motivations. In his film The New Boy, writer and director Warwick Thornton examines some of those motivations through the lens of …
I made the mistake of ignoring the release of the Fear Street trilogy in 2021… a blunder I corrected this past week in preparation for the saga’s fourth installment, Prom Queen. It’s essential to highlight just how underrated and overlooked Leigh Janiak’s original three films remain – remarkable examples of …
The Un Certain Regard section is the second most significant section of the Cannes Film Festival. It presents rising directors who already have a presence in world cinema. It is the case of Un Poeta (A Poet), directed by Simón Mesa Soto. The Colombian filmmaker presented his last film, Amparo, …
The ripped-from-the-headlines Case 137 (Dossier 137) combines two genres everybody loves. The first is the detailed bureaucracy of justice and how much easier it is to find objective truth since we all started carrying recording devices (our mobile phones) around at all times. Think Anatomy of a Fall and Saint …
Independent Dutch director Suzanne Raes’ documentary, Where Dragons Live, revolves around Harriet and her siblings, who, following their mother’s death, begin preparing their stately childhood home, Cumnor Place in Oxfordshire, for sale. Sorting through the house that has become cluttered with forgotten and once-important belongings, stir memories of their childhood. …
In Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by the legendary Raoul Peck, we learn more about Cole and the South African apartheid. In 1948, with the election of Daniel François Malan as the first minister of South Africa, apartheid became a policy of the government. The black population of the country …
The influence of The Zone of Interest is heavy on Two Prosecutors, a story about Stalinist terror that works as well as it does thanks to its discretion. It’s less about the sound design and more the enveloping knowledge of all the horrors out of frame. Anything that tried to …
The Portuguese director Pedro Pinho presents his latest film, O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm), at the Un Certain Regard section in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The author’s last full-length feature, A Fábrica de Nada, had its premiere at the Quinzaine des Cineastes in …
The Semaine de la Critique (Critics Week) is a crucial sidebar at the Festival de Cannes. It focuses on debut and sophomore films. A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka) by the Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke is another hyped first-time directorial effort. The semaine is responsible for unveiling buzzy titles …
Hurry Up Tomorrow is directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night), a filmmaker who here collaborates with Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim (The Idol) on the screenplay. Starring Jenna Ortega (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) and Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin), with Tesfaye himself playing a fictionalized version …
In recent years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a central part of the geopolitical discussions due to his scandals as the leader of his country. In 2016, Netanyahu was investigated for corruption and bribery. Over two years, Justice interrogated everyone near him. The result was thousands of hours …
On October 11th, 1975, television changed forever. NBC premiered a revolutionary concept. It combined a bunch of young and innovative comedians who would perform sketches written during the week. The show, commanded by the young Canadian writer Lorne Michaels, was Saturday Night Live. Fifty years later, SNL became a place …