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3.5/5
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Blitz
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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The best thing about Blitz is that its ending would seem melodramatic, even hackneyed, in the hands of a lesser filmmaker. After a collective ordeal – not just for its young hero, but everyone, including the audience – it arrives like a relief.
Posted Nov 08, 2024
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Heretic
(2024)
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Holly Hazelwood
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In the hands of any other actor, the film may have been destined to fail — but you just can’t beat that Ol’ Grant Magic.
Posted Nov 08, 2024
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Music by John Williams
(2024)
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Charles Johnston
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This fast-paced portrait celebrating the enchanting, musical genius of John Williams is appropriately epic and touches on everything, but it never lingers or even catches a breath.
Posted Nov 07, 2024
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Soundtrack to a Coup d'État
(2024)
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Erik Reeds
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Belgian director Johan Grimonprez’s mammoth, seemingly all-encompassing Cold War documentary is one of the most ambitious films of the year.
Posted Nov 06, 2024
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59/100
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Absolution
(2024)
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Pat Padua
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The returns on this once consistently satisfying second act are diminishing.
Posted Nov 05, 2024
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Traffic Jam
(1991)
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Pat Padua
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Mitsuo Kurotsuchi fuels his absurdist comedy-drama (accent on the latter) with a profound melancholy that rises above its occasional descent into the barnyard.
Posted Nov 05, 2024
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The Graduates
(2023)
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Miyako Pleines
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The Graduates isn’t anything revelatory – its themes have been explored through film time and time again – but it has enough heart to feel meaningful.
Posted Nov 05, 2024
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Emilia Pérez
(2024)
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A.C. Koch
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This is not a love story or a sweeping historical epic, and yet it leverages the power of music and dance to compress its themes of identity and self-actualization into a dazzling but somewhat flawed package.
Posted Nov 01, 2024
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Slingshot
(2024)
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Derek Chen
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Even if Slingshot often feels like a simple exercise in thriller conventions that’s taken to the stars, it can still be a fun ride.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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In the Summers
(2024)
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Derek Chen
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In the Summers is a strong debut effort that powerfully reckons with childhood trauma, as well as the possibility of healing and forgiveness.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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Look Back
(2024)
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Derek Chen
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Fujimoto’s work seems to open itself up to plenty of misinterpretation, but Look Back still has enough tenderness to make for a touching short story.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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Adrianne & the Castle
(2024)
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Derek Chen
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There's an obvious catharsis in observing someone reflect on their own loss and how they've grieved — but Adrianne & The Castle is an echo chamber born out of privilege and wealth that goads you into projecting upon it.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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Dahomey
(2024)
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Daniel Pemberton
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Diop’s film is filled with ideas about the significance and beauty of restitution, beautifully shot and scored with an enchanting soundscape.
Posted Oct 31, 2024
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La Cocina
(2024)
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Tanner Gordon
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A prefixed menu made up of strong, unsubtle flavors, this film is an uneven but memorable trip into a literal hell’s kitchen.
Posted Oct 30, 2024
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My Name is Alfred Hitchcock
(2022)
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David Harris
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British impressionist Alistair McGowan slips into the skin of the legendary director for a “documentary” that feels like a badly conceived DVD bonus feature gone awry.
Posted Oct 30, 2024
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Magpie
(2024)
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Ria Dhull
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Daisy Ridley and Shazad Latif deliver some of the best performances of their careers in Magpie, a movie that starts strong but crashes at the end.
Posted Oct 29, 2024
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Black Box Diaries
(2024)
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Alex Nguyen
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Black Box Diaries chronicles a moving story of perseverance against a legal system that often silences survivors of sexual assault.
Posted Oct 29, 2024
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Let's Start a Cult
(2024)
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Joel Copling
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Let’s Start a Cult is based upon an alternately wacky and alarming idea that, thankfully, the filmmakers mine for most of its potential.
Posted Oct 28, 2024
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Your Monster
(2024)
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Devon Webb
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This charming debut mixes comedy, horror and musical theater, resulting in a delightfully quirky and emotionally resonant Halloween fable.
Posted Oct 28, 2024
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1.5/5
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Memoir of a Snail
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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A sustained exploration of abject misery, writer-director Adam Elliot finds one note and punishes his audience with it, annihilating any charm or admiration for the craft involved.
Posted Oct 25, 2024
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Kensuke's Kingdom
(2023)
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Joel Copling
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Kensuke’s Kingdom is an adventure story in the classical tradition, defined by patience and attentiveness to its characters.
Posted Oct 24, 2024
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Rippy
(2024)
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Miyako Pleines
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Ryan Coonan’s Rippy is nothing short of one of the most uninteresting, boring films to ever grace the screen.
Posted Oct 23, 2024
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Exhibiting Forgiveness
(2024)
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Joel Copling
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The story being told here is not one that would immediately come to mind from a painter-turned-filmmaker, but then again, Titus Kaphar’s career until this point has been creating pieces that evoke the African-American existence.
Posted Oct 22, 2024
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Goodrich
(2024)
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Jesse Doppelt
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Meyers-Shyer chases down the film’s least interesting plotlines until all that’s left is a boring pile of tropes.
Posted Oct 21, 2024
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Rumours
(2024)
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Tanner Gordon
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Rumours will not go down as one of Maddin’s most celebrated efforts, but it’s charmingly sincere in its effort to simply do whatever it wants to do.
Posted Oct 21, 2024
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Basements
(1987)
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Pat Padua
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Does not do any justice to its source material, careening from simply misguided to bloody awful.
Posted Oct 18, 2024
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Anora
(2024)
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Tanner Gordon
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Make no mistake, Anora is still an independent film, but it shows that the barrier between creating a likable Hollywood love story and crafting one of grit, drama and integrity, isn’t as wide as one might think.
Posted Oct 18, 2024
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Girls Will Be Girls
(2024)
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Ria Dhull
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Girls Will Be Girls eschews convention to bring forth a rocky but unique picture of female life in male-dominated India.
Posted Oct 17, 2024
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Things Will Be Different
(2024)
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Ria Dhull
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Things Will Be Different begins with a compelling science fiction premise, but quickly falters and sinks under its own bloat, drowning in a sea of bad pacing and inane dialogue.
Posted Oct 17, 2024
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Dusty & Stones
(2022)
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Ria Dhull
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Dusty & Stones succeeds as a documentary, even as director Jesse Rudoy gets too big for his britches and veers into the hypocritical.
Posted Oct 17, 2024
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Chosen Family
(2024)
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Joel Copling
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Graham’s only impressive feat is having made a movie in which not a single character resembles a functional human being.
Posted Oct 16, 2024
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Bad Genius
(2024)
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Charles Johnston
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While not quite as raw as its rich source material, this restrained remake of a high school drama inside of a heist movie smooths out the original story and fixes its ending.
Posted Oct 15, 2024
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70/100
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Daaaaaali!
(2023)
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Pat Padua
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Thankfully, Daaaaaali! isn’t another Dali biopic — it’s another Quentin Dupieux, and even when his influences are on his cinematic sleeve, nobody else really makes movies like him.
Posted Oct 14, 2024
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The Apprentice
(2024)
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Charles Johnston
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Electric performances jump off the screen, and the retro look is immersive, but the movie still rings hollow due to soulless characters and sprinkles of unwelcome humor.
Posted Oct 14, 2024
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We Live in Time
(2024)
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Holly Hazelwood
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Make no mistake: if you’re open-hearted enough, We Live in Time will gently devastate you, but it’ll also make you genuinely laugh out loud more often than it makes you reach for a pack of tissues.
Posted Oct 14, 2024
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Saturday Night
(2024)
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A.C. Koch
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Saturday Night is as goofy of a shaggy-dog variety show as its inspiration, equal parts fizzle and sizzle, but good enough for a great time.
Posted Oct 11, 2024
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Daytime Revolution
(2024)
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Devon Webb
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Yoko Ono is the star of the show in this documentary revisiting the Lennons’ radical takeover of daytime television.
Posted Oct 10, 2024
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3/5
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Little Bites
(2024)
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Josh Goller
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By the third act, the film may falter under the weight of its metaphors, but despite flaws in the script, its compelling performances and effective creature design are enough for a tasty little horror trifle.
Posted Oct 09, 2024
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The Problem with People
(2024)
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Holly Hazelwood
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The Problem With People is one of those movies that makes you feel bad for not liking it more than you do.
Posted Oct 08, 2024
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Frankie Freako
(2024)
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Joel Copling
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The joke is delivered by way of some genuinely inspired puppetry and some cheaply produced but cleverly devised digital effects.
Posted Oct 08, 2024
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The Outrun
(2024)
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Tanner Gordon
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Well-meaning and honest, The Outrun is far from a failure. But like its protagonist, it’s too focused on creating an intoxicating effect, coming at the expense of sobering clarity.
Posted Oct 04, 2024
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Joker: Folie à Deux
(2024)
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Daniel Pemberton
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Grating musical numbers, lackluster performances, and an incoherent plot make this baffling and bizarre entry into the Batman cinematic canon a tedious outing unable to embrace the weirdness of its own premise.
Posted Oct 04, 2024
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Food and Country
(2023)
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Joel Copling
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Food and Country is a surprisingly comprehensive documentary that offers a spread of compelling perspectives and stories.
Posted Oct 03, 2024
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Abruptio
(2023)
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Miyako Pleines
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Evan Marlowe’s life-size puppet drama Abruptio offers up some interesting visuals and a handful of clever concepts, it just never manages to cut itself free from some of the genre’s biggest cliché strings.
Posted Oct 02, 2024
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Empire Waist
(2024)
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Joel Copling
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In Empire Waist, writer/director Claire Ayoub coasts on a good message and feel-good vibe.
Posted Oct 02, 2024
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1/5
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Azrael
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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This film is utterly underdeveloped, an interesting conceit that should have been abandoned when the production team realized the screenplay is shorter than the list of unresolved questions that are left unanswered.
Posted Oct 01, 2024
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Amber Alert
(2024)
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Charles Johnston
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Budget limitations, second-rate acting and an abundance of implausible plot points quickly dampen the spark of this film’s promising premise.
Posted Oct 01, 2024
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Anora
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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There is no strain for affect, and every situation grows with a unique mix of realism and manic comic energy. The sustained pace and pitch-perfect performances are downright thrilling.
Posted Sep 30, 2024
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Cloud
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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A puzzle-box thriller crossed with an action extravaganza, this is the sort of stuff that may repel many viewers, while drawing in others willing to accept its disinterest in explaining itself.
Posted Sep 30, 2024
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Ebony and Ivory
(2024)
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Alan Zilberman
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It is a showcase for an entirely different, compelling style of movie acting. The two leads make zero attempt to soften their characters, and while they sometimes lean into shtick, they courageously operate without any care for subtext or good taste.
Posted Sep 30, 2024
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