Proudly, gloriously out of step with mainstream film culture, Paterson is like an ambassador from a world where films are made free of commercial imperatives, indeed from a world where the shallow values of celebrity and wealth are replaced by the co …Read more
Graduation is an intricately detailed look at one man, through entirely good intentions, falling into an abyss of moral compromise. In the film’s painstaking portrayal of one decision and its disastrous aftermath, director Cristian Mungiu condemns al …Read more
Pablo Larraín’s Neruda is a beautiful film and a bold challenge to the boring formulae of biopics. The flow of the film isn’t governed by facts and dates, but by moods and emotions, taking the audience on a dizzying journey through seemingly differen …Read more
In The Rehearsal, director and New Zealand native Alison Maclean returns to her homeland to adapt the first novel of New Zealand’s young literary star Eleanor Catton. Taking place mostly in the confines of an elite drama school, even as it eschews co …Read more
Zach Clark’s Little Sister is at once wise, fun, and down to earth. It understands that in the process of finding peace in the world, people draw from strands as diverse as Catholicism, politics (the film is set on the cusp of Obama’s first election) …Read more
Other filmmakers have reproduced vintage film aesthetics, but seldom with as much brio and intelligence as writer/director Anna Biller in The Love Witch. Though there are fleeting glimpses of modern technology, Biller has crafted The Love Witch as a …Read more
Little Men, from director Ira Sachs, is the kind of film that initially seems quite modest, from its short length and its understated style and its tight focus, in a city of millions, on two young boys and their short but significant friendship. Howe …Read more
BAMcinemaFest 2016 kicked off on the 15th, bringing another excellent slate of independent films to Brooklyn. This year features an intriguing mix of comedy and tragedy, fiction and documentary, throwbacks and flash forwards, and best of all films t …Read more
Rooftop Films officially kicked off its twentieth season on May 20th with a program of short films, the first of over fifty outdoor screenings they’ll host this summer. I have to admit, I’m not familiar with most of the films on the docket this year, …Read more
The most genre-inflected Palme d’Or winner of the 21st century, Dheepan brings director Jacques Audiard’s brash but nuanced aesthetic to bear on a tragic tale of immigration. Former Sri Lankan guerilla Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan, himself once a …Read more
