By Thomas M. Puhr. This 64-minute fever dream exudes a confidence and singularity of vision rarely seen in debuts.” Angels float in an ink black sky. The camera descends from these heavens, past wispy clouds, and settles at street level, where a spotlight shines on the entrance sign to Gimli […]
A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Mr. Malcom’s List (Emma Holly Jones, 2022)
By Theresa Rodewald. Not every film has to reinvent the formula and for some viewers, Mr. Malcom’s List, with its delightful performances, will be the perfect film for a rainy day or a cozy movie night with friends. Those viewers looking for a more daring approach to the period drama […]
Regeneration in Tokyo: Masashi Yamamoto’s Robinson’s Garden (1987)
By Thomas M. Puhr. A true lost classic, one which should find the wider audience it so richly deserves.” Kani Releasing’s best offering to date, Masashi Yamamoto’s Robinson’s Garden (Robinson no niwa, 1987) is a revelation, the type of overlooked gem that blasts any modest expectations you might have for […]
Innate Contradiction, and Curious Amalgam of Stereotype: Lena Dunham’s Sharp Stick (2022)
By Yun-hua Chen. Entertaining, and sexy for what it sets out to do, but if Hannah Horvath in Girls could self-assuredly declare herself ‘the voice of a generation,’ Sarah Jo in Sharp Stick wrestles to find a coherent voice of any kind.” The director, actor, and showrunner Lena Dunham, famous […]
The Discomfort of Strangers: Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. More akin to an ancient tragedy – one that looks unflinchingly at the terrible depths to which all-too-human people can sink.” Horrible things happen in Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (2022), but it is not really a horror film. Like Salò (1975) or Martyrs (2008), it […]
Shower Me with Likes: Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes’ Sissy (2022)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Sissy satisfies on most fronts, eliciting shocked guffaws and legitimate scares in equal measure. It’s easy to imagine it one day becoming something of a cult classic.” Cecilia seems to have it all. Her mental health video podcast, “Sincerely, Cecilia” – which includes episodes with titles […]
Resistance to Conformity: Eva Vitija’s Loving Highsmith (2022)
By Melanie Marotta. Ever since I was sixteen or seventeen, I’d – I’d get what is sometimes called creepy ideas.” (05:19-05:25) With Loving Highsmith (2022), writer and director Eva Vitija does what others have refused to do – she resists labeling Highsmith. Instead, by allowing her life to unfold, viewers […]
A Grim War Tale: Burial
By Elias Savada. Despite the director’s limited ability to handle low-budget action in his debut feature, his much more accomplished follow-up shows he still needs to work with better, less-confusing script material.” British filmmaker Ben Parker only has two features under his belt: The Chamber from 2017 and Burial, now […]
Bloody Family Reunion: Vincent Grashaw’s What Josiah Saw (2021)
By Thomas Puhr. In short, wildly inconsistent. But at its best, it’s something to behold; more akin to a Southern Gothic short story of the William Faulkner variety than a straight-up horror exercise.” Given its vaguely connected story threads – each of which varies considerably in quality – Vincent Grashaw’s […]
Awkward Love Blossoms in Goodbye, Petrushka
By Elias Savada. Nicola Rose’s first feature displays some grand baby steps towards a brighter future. You just have to accept the weird, brightly-colored yet sparse tableau she has drawn here.” For those of us who like romantic comedies, Goodbye, Petrushka falls amidst the genre’s smaller ones best described as […]