Hubert Charuel’s METEORS depicts a devoted friendship that plays out like a heart-rending doomed romance. Mika and Dan, played convincingly by Paul Kircher and Idir Azougli, dream of leaving their decaying small town while trying to overcome addiction and avoid jail sentences. After introducing them in a comedic opening sequence, Charuel and his co-writer Claude […]
I Only Rest in the Storm – Cannes 2025
Pedro Pinho’s I ONLY REST IN THE STORM is a 3.5 hour long journey with Portuguese environmental engineer Sérgio through Guinea-Bissau and surrounding regions and I was happy to tag along. It takes its original name O Riso e a Faca (Laughter and the Knife) from the Tom Zé song the characters sing along to […]
A Useful Ghost – Cannes 2025
Ghosts are everywhere in Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Cannes comedy A USEFUL GHOST. They have to deal with bureaucracy, and face discrimination and the legal consequences of their actions. People make out with haunted vacuum cleaners and monks curse like sailors. Around the 75 minute mark we get what appears to be a conclusion to a lighthearted […]
Death Does Not Exist – Cannes 2025
Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s dreamlike hand-drawn animated film DEATH DOES NOT EXIST makes fascinating use of colors and is visually captivating. It starts with a brutal, bloody armed attack scene that startles without having any red in it. We later get a different version of the same scene, this time with red blood, when the main character […]
Home Sweet Home
Frelle Petersen’s HOME SWEET HOME from Seattle International Film Festival follows divorced home care worker Sofie as she tries to balance her new job taking care of the elderly with parenting her 10-year-old daughter Clara. She starts the job enthusiastically, but the hectic nature of it and having to deal with difficult people soon take a […]
The Things You Kill
Alireza Khatami nods to Buñuel and Lynch in the Seattle International Film Festival revenge thriller THE THINGS YOU KILL, one of my favorites among the films I have seen this year and the first great WTF movie of the year. It is dreamlike, puzzling, and features breathtaking cinematography and intricate camerawork including a mind-blowing mirror […]
Shepherds
Mathyas leaves his corporate job in Montreal and heads to French Alps to become a shepherd. If the idea of a rural life appeals to you, then you’ll likely enjoy Sophie Deraspe’s pastoral drama SHEPHERDS. The visuals, the orchestral score, and the performances are all first-rate. The story was engaging enough, but I found it […]
Color Book
In David Fortune’s debut feature COLOR BOOK, which is featured in Seattle International Film Festival’s in-person and streaming lineup, Lucky is trying to raise Mason, his son with Down syndrome, on his own after the passing of his wife. The crisp black and white photography with the Atlanta backdrop, lovely orchestral score by Dabney Morris, […]
Sons
Gustav Möller follows his debut feature The Guilty with SONS, another nerve-wracking thriller that is worthy of its predecessor. This time the setting is a prison and the film explores the power dynamic between a guard and a violent criminal from her past. Sidse Babett Knudsen makes us feel Eva’s fury and desperation with a […]
Souleymane’s Story
Souleymane’s Story is a heartbreaking one. Boris Lojkine’s social realist thriller from Seattle International Film Festival is anxiety-inducing and not for the faint of heart. It chronicles two nights and two days in the life of an undocumented Guinean immigrant in Paris, who has a grueling job doing food deliveries on bike while preparing for […]