A Great Performance From Franz Rogowski Cannot Save a Derivative Debut [Berlin]

Category: Reviews

A Great Performance From Franz Rogowski Cannot Save a Derivative Debut [Berlin]

Young Belarusian Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) is impatient for a better life in Europe. Coming from a country under dictatorship and with very strong Russian ties, the political isolation of which has made it suffocating for the younger generations, he is…

Sydney Sweeney is at Her Best in Tense True Story

In 2017, former US Air Force translator Reality Winner leaked an intelligence report revealing Russia’s attempted interference in 2016’s US presidential elections. While Winner acted out of her sense of patriotic duty, she nevertheless committed a crime. So, it isn't…

Sebastian Stan Runs Cons in Inconsistent Crime Thriller

On paper, Sharper is the type of movie that is made for me. Sebastian Stan plays a grifter named Max who, with his lover and partner Madeline, played by Julianne Moore, pulls jobs conning rich people out of their money.…

Nostalgia | Film Threat

Co-writer/director Mario Martone’s Italian drama Nostalgia is a beautiful look at the bittersweet results of trying to go home again. Felice Lasco (Pierfrancesco Favino) left Naples for Cairo 40 years ago when he was a teenager. He built a life in Egypt,…

Jackson’s Debut Is Visually Magnificent [Sundance]

Sometimes, a film comes along that is transformative, visceral, and so moving that it will make one gasp with the depth of emotion and sensitivity it holds. Raven Jackson’s feature debut, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, is a gorgeous,…

Diverge | Film Threat

Our appetite for post-apocalyptic narratives is seemingly insatiable. Whether it’s current sensation The Last of Us or a classic like The Omega Man, we’re drawn to stories of survival in the midst of a crumbling world. We’re still relatively fresh off our own…

Onashile’s Sincere Debut On Trauma & Parenthood Is Tender [Sundance]

Home Movie Reviews Girl Review: Onashile’s Sincere Debut On Trauma & Parenthood Is Tender [Sundance] Written with tenderness, directed with impactful execution & acted with such fiery conviction, Girl is sincere in depicting overprotective parenthood. Déborah Lukumuena and Le'Shantey Bonsu…

Frustrating Incel Satire Sees Jesse Eisenberg’s Best Turn in a Decade

Based on the synopsis alone, one would think John Trengove’s “Manodrome” to have two feet in satire: Jesse Eisenberg is Ralphie, a father-to-be lulled into a libertarian masculinity cult led by Adrien Brody. It is odd, then, to see the…

The Killers Next Door | Film Threat

The Killers Next Door, written and directed by Michael A. LoCicero, begins with ex-convict Bobby (David Pridemore) finding his foster brother begging for a cigarette and a job. Ryan (LoCicero), said brother and also an ex-convict, is none too pleased…

Sydney Sweeney Delivers A Tour De Force As A Cornered Whistleblower [Berlin]

Like so many young performers, Sydney Sweeney proved that she was a star before she could get the chance to prove that she was a well-rounded actor. Her name-making gigs as a vindictive, canonically gorgeous high schooler on TV’s “Euphoria,”…

Alaoui’s Hypnotic Debut Is Ambitious & Inspiring [Sundance]

Home Movie Reviews Animalia Review: Alaoui’s Hypnotic Debut Is Ambitious & Inspiring [Sundance] A love letter to existential inquisition and class dissection, Alaoui’s film is mysterious and imaginative in all the best ways a project can be. Sofia Alaoui, short…

Tatiana Huezo Returns to Her Non-Fiction Roots with Another Striking, Multigenerational Story of Women and Nature [Berlin]

With an admirable cohesiveness, Mexican-Salvadoran director Tatiana Huezo (“Prayers for the Stolen”) has curated a body of work that often returns to familiar questions, subjects, and even precise images of evolving girlhood and untarnished nature. The filmmaker’s most fixed preoccupation…

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