Halina Reijn’s Babygirl is juicy and entertaining. Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are both sensational. Even though it is a very different film than Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies, one similarity is their use of music to great effect including a montage set to Never Tear Us Apart by Inxs and a hotel room scene with […]
TWST – Things We Said Today – Venice 2024
Andrei Ujică’s TWST / Things We Said Today is an archival footage documentary about the 1965 weekend The Beatles arrived in New York City to perform at Shea Stadium. The footage looks fantastic and the added animation and voice-over transform it into a poetic time capsule. It is less about The Beatles and more about […]
Mon Inséparable (My Everything) – Venice 2024
Anne-Sophie Bailly’s debut feature MON INSÉPARABLE (My Everything) is a perfectly pleasant French drama about a mother who finds out her adult son and his girlfriend, both of whom have mental disabilities, are expecting a child. Laure Calamy is a joy to watch as usual and has some steamy romantic scenes with Geert Van Rampelberg. […]
The Mohican – Venice 2024
Joseph Cardelli, played by Alexis Manenti, goes from goatherd to GOAT when he unintentionally kills the mob henchman, who was pressuring him to sell his land, in Frederic Farrucci’s The Mohican. The film, which just had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, has echoes of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts due to the similarity […]
Quiet Life – Venice 2024
Greek director Alexandros Avranas’ Quiet Life is a horror story disguised as an immigration drama. Sergei, Natalia, and their two young daughters Alina and Katja, a picture perfect family at first glance, are looking for asylum in Sweden after Sergei survives a knife attack perpetrated by the agents of the Russian state. When their request […]
Mexico 86 – Locarno 2024
In MEXICO 86 from director César Díaz, Bérénice Bejo’s Maria is a revolutionary activist fighting for Guatemalan liberation, who has to flee to Mexico and leave her infant son behind to be raised by her mother. It is based on Díaz’s and his mother’s experiences and the film is dedicated to her. He constructs a […]
Kidnapping Inc. – Fantasia 2024
Bruno Mourral’s ‘90s throwback crime comedy KIDNAPPING INC. fuses non-stop violent action with Haitian politics. The mixing of the slapstick and the serious results in some tonal inconsistencies, but you might be willing to overlook them because the entertaining parts are so good. It also provides insight into daily lives of Haitians, who have to […]
Self Driver – Fantasia 2024
SELF DRIVER from director Michael Pierro is my favorite of the Fantasia 2024 selections I have seen. A cab driver with mounting debt starts using a rideshare app of questionable legality that promises a lot of money quickly. One strange customer after another tests the limits of what he will do for the money. Like […]
Cuckoo – Fantasia 2024
Tilman Singer’s CUCKOO is a creepy, bonkers horror movie in a year full of good ones. Hunter Schafer is wonderfully vulnerable as a teenager, who just lost her mother. Dan Stevens is a hoot as the goofy, fiendish German hotel owner. The sound and production designs are exceptional. If you can get past parts of […]
Black Eyed Susan – Fantasia 2024
Black Eyed Susan, cult director Scooter McCrae’s first film in 21 years, explores the implications of where AI technology is going as it relates to perverse, abusive behavior even if the victim is not a real person, but an advanced robot. The provocative opening scene is sure to offend some unsuspecting viewers. After that it […]