Paradise: Hope offers poetic capper to trilogy of humanist discomfort
For his final film in the “Paradise Trilogy,” Paradise: Hope, the most stunning aspect of director Ulrich Seidl's fifth feature film is that he shows...
Lover for a Day presents beautiful if cynical story about relationships
“How does somebody suddenly become so indifferent?” “That’s it, no more relationships if that’s how it ends.” “I was played by love. Not by...
My Golden Days explores the distorting filter of time with keen...
“I am not Ulysses. No nostalgia for my country,” says the anthropologist Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric) to a lover in Greece. With a title...
'Young & Beautiful' explores women's sexuality with a nuanced touch
Of all the filmmakers across the globe, the French always seem to deliver the deepest ruminations on human relationships through intimate corporeal exchanges. One...
Nocturnal Animals uses conflicting narratives to reveal conflicting nature of love...
Typically, Hollywood movies celebrate weddings as a big, positive climax in a film’s plot line or even the ultimate goal of its protagonists. Reality,...
Film Review: Computer Chess reveals the mystical in the cyber
A rather cute notion clouds the mystical existential drama of Computer Chess, the new film by Andrew Bujalski. Just before the dawn of personal computers,...
Hail, Caesar! relentlessly sends up old Hollywood studio system — a...
If Hail, Caesar! is anything more than a series of send-ups of the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s, then I didn’t see it. The...
Mistress America explores the power of friendship beyond ego with endearment...
Writer/director Noah Baumbach's insights into human behavior seem to grow more astute with every film he makes. Somehow he finds charms in the flaws of people and...
Film review: ‘Tabu’ celebrates story while subverting cinema, dreams and memory
Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes heralds the new year of cinema with a bold film approaching masterpiece greatness. Shot entirely in black and white and featuring...
Film Review: Misguided ‘Starlet’ fails as wannabe transcendent drama
I can appreciate a lo-fi film as much as the next guy who got into cinema with Werner Herzog and the Dogma years of...