Jesse Eisenberg’s wonderful A REAL PAIN from Sundance Film Festival manages to be both laugh out loud funny and moving. Kieran Culkin outdoes himself in a very nuanced role. With the aid of a Chopin soundtrack, we are truly along for the ride on the characters’ cathartic journey.
Love Me
Looking at the initially released still from Andrew & Sam Zuchero’s Sundance 2024 film Love Me, where Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun lovingly stare at one another in bed, it is hard not to get disappointed that for most of its running time the film uses only their voices over ordinary animation. It is a […]
In The Land of Brothers
One of my favorite Sundance 2024 watches so far, IN THE LAND OF BROTHERS, depicts the gritty realities facing Afghan refugees in Iran while avoiding sappy pitfalls. Some of the non-professional actors are actual refugees. Frédéric Alvarez’s score is lovely.
Sujo
Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero’s previous collaboration, the haunting Identifying Features, was one of the highlights of 2020 Sundance Film Festival. SUJO, which had its premiere at this year’s festival, is a more than worthy follow-up. If we get a better coming-of-age story this year, we will be lucky. The images, performances, and the score […]
Origin
Ava DuVernay explores the universality of caste in the always compelling and beautifully shot ORIGIN, which had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is spectacular as the grief-stricken Isabel. It’s impossible to hold back the tears during several gorgeous looking scenes. The dramatic elements might be distracting for those who prefer a […]
The Teacher’s Lounge
If you’ve ever considered becoming a teacher and ended up choosing a different career path, you might be you did glad after watching Ilker Çatak’s The Teacher’s Lounge. Idealistic and beloved teacher Carla Nowak, played convincingly by Leonor Benesch, is not happy when one of her students is suspected of theft and would like to […]
Housekeeping For Beginners
Goran Stolevski’s HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS, which just screened at NewFest, breaks your heart and then warms it while keeping you occupied with a fast moving story that does not waste a minute. It is joyful to watch a found family film in which people are there for one another without expecting anything in return. The […]
Saltburn
The first secret screening of 2023 Fantastic Fest turned out to be SALTBURN. Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman works as a shocking comedy. I and many others in the theater laughed loudly throughout. If it ultimately amounts to less than its many entertaining parts, it is still a must-see thanks in large part […]
Fallen Leaves
There is constant news of the war in Ukraine on the radio. Ansa gets fired from her job at the supermarket for taking an expired sandwich she was supposed to throw away. Holappa is not sure whether he is drinking because he is depressed or he is depressed because he is drinking. Their world, and […]
Without Air
In Hungarian filmmaker Katalin Moldovai’s WITHOUT AIR, which just had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, a beloved high school teacher has to endure a scandal after recommending a film to her literature class. The plot has some similar elements to Dead Poets Society and Radu Jude’s equally wonderful Bad Luck Banging […]