Review

By Gary M. Kramer. This ambitious Turkish film is often artificial and pretentious.” Screening as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, February 4-7, the ambitious Turkish film, The Cemil Show, opens with a black-and-white square frame sequence from the (fictional) B-movie Kabus. Actor Turgay Göral (Basar Alemdar) is carrying […]

By Thomas Puhr. Gorehounds will likely feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth, but some may find a bitter taste – one unrelated to the on-screen viscera – lingering in their mouths.” Although gross-out horror movies often follow a tried-and-true recipe (an isolated setting, a series of increasingly-complex and nauseating special […]

By Thomas Puhr. Too plodding for genre enthusiasts and hackneyed for arthouse devotees, Savage State will likely underwhelm both audiences.” Westerns set during the American Civil War are a dime a dozen, but David Perrault’s Savage State (L’état sauvage, 2019) offers an enticing twist: that of a French family attempting […]

By Ali Moosavi. A story with global appeal but one that will especially resonate with those who have reached the pensioner age.” Italy has a rich tradition in producing comedies which have had global appeal, made by some of the best comedy directors that cinema has known. Examples include Mario […]

By Rod Lott. If “fun” sounds like an odd word to apply to a Belgium-lensed beaut this art-minded, this patient, the slow burner eventually catches enough fire to earn the distinction.” Prematurely celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new 4K restoration courtesy of Blue Underground is 1971’s Daughters of Darkness. […]

By Jeremy Carr. Lingering apprehension goes on and on like some unyielding, if seemingly uneventful dream, which befits the film’s surreal and otherworldly constitution.” Colin and Mary (Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson) are two English tourists on holiday in Venice, and they’re hungry. The hotel concierge directs them to a […]

By Elias Savada. No doubt the film is somewhat stifled by its technical faults (at least in my online viewing). The Family Tree offers up a spiritual dish in a different setting, probably outside your comfort zone.” Panamanian indie filmmaker Jorge Ameer’s name (and initials) is all over the place […]

Identifying Features By Gary M. Kramer. The austere approach of Identifying Features contributes to the film’s haunting quality,,,,, (while) No Man’s Land‘s bluntness is why it is ineffective.” Two films that deal with characters crossing the U.S.-Mexican border are being released January 22. Identifying Features is a potent drama, but […]

The Ghost Train (1941) A Book Review by Tony Williams. Meticulously researched, accessible to all readers, and full of Anthony Slide’s usual discerning comments, it is an important study of one of Britain’s most misunderstood popular entertainers. For American and U.K. counterparts interested in the British past and watching Talking […]

By Elias Savada. A lackluster affair, sporting cardboard characters and gag-worthy clichés.” Just a few months ago Liam Neeson was fumbling around the generic wasteland of his usual escapist entertainment with Honest Thief. Easily forgotten stuff. He’s back in the same doldrums with a new film, in a new year […]