The Holdovers: Alexander Payne Rises Again

By Elias Savada. A big, gift-wrapped present filled with sentimentality and lovely, effective performances….” Always a visionary, and one whose seven previous features as a director have garnered considerable acclaim—the sole, gaping-wound exception being 2017’s Downsizing, a disastrous journey into sci-fi dramedy with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig—director-producer-writer Alexander Payne […]

Action by the Numbers: King of Killers (2023)

By Jeremy Carr. At just 88 minutes, King of Killers moves along at a well enough pace, but when there are lulls in the film it can be as lifeless as so many corpses strewn across the floor.” There’s something to be said for the escapist allure of a big, […]

A Dead-End World: Olmo Schnabel on Pet Shop Days (2023)

By Jonathan Monovich. The story was so grounded in referencing other stories, other films, or other filmmakers, and I just wanted it to feel like something that’s existed for a long time. I didn’t necessarily want it to feel like something new.” Olmo Schnabel’s writing/directorial debut, Pet Shop Days (originally […]

Collective Movements: Lav Diaz on Essential Truths of the Lake

By Yun-hua Chen. In Philippines, we still have very responsible cultural workers, social workers and foundations. We are still fighting. Even in other parts of the world, there are still responsible people. We need this kind of collective movements so that we can mitigate all these nuances of destruction.” In […]

The Amazing Elasticity of Neo-Noir: Silent as the Grave (2023)

By William Blick. Shows the glory of the ever-independent neo-noir film that will be around for a long time.” For me, neo-noir reemerged effectively with Blue Ruin, an underrated Coen brother-esque film that was buzzing around in 2010’s era at the Hampton Film Festival, where I happened to see it. […]

Lost, but Not Dead: London After Midnight

By Gary D. Rhodes. I’ve solved this mystery. You’re at the bottom of it.” – Hibbs (Conrad Nagel), London after Midnight, 1927 Tod Browning’s London after Midnight, released by MGM in 1927, represents America’s first supernatural vampire feature film. Except that it isn’t. It does not depict a supernatural vampire, […]

The Father of the Iranian New Wave: Dariush Mehrjui, 1939-2023

By Ali Moosavi. The discovery of the groundbreaking filmmaker’s body with that of his wife in their home, both stabbed, on Saturday, 14 October (found by their daughter), has sent a shockwave throughout the film community at a troubling time…. The news item was brief: the bodies of the Iranian […]