With the lifting of the embargo between the United States and Cuba, the film industry is rushing to capitalize on the island’s forbidden allure. The early results are dispiriting, indicating that Hollywood can only imagine this unique culture to be a …Read more

The Ticket The Ticket, a thought-provoking look at one of the central tensions of modern life, is an unassuming film whose moral and spiritual elements simmer underneath the action in the first half before rising to the surface in the affecting concl …Read more

High-Rise immediately declares its intention to shock, showing a bloodstained Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) spit roasting a dog and living a feral existence in his newly deluxe modern tower block. Director Ben Wheatley’s film based on the 1975 no …Read more

In Equals, Silas (Nicholas Hoult) and Nia (Kristen Stewart) live harmoniously in a future society where emotions have been neutralized for the good of the community. Those who do accidentally feel something have “caught the bug” and are treated medic …Read more

Women Who Kill, from The Slope creator Ingrid Jungermann, manages to be equal parts relationship drama, a droll look at the Park Slope lesbian community, and a nerve-jangling thriller. Jungermann stars as Morgan, who avoids strife and danger in her o …Read more

Performance, the idea that artifice can reveal deeper truths, is a keystone of art. But what’s more revealing, a “good” performance or a “bad” one? Is there any inherent, fixed core of personality at the heart of an individual or are we all the sum o …Read more

While grief is one of the most unruly emotions, movies about grief are usually dour and predictable affairs. Killing off a character’s significant other is simply too easy a way to garner sympathy for that character, which is why it’s a relief that D …Read more

Bob Nelson, the writer of Nebraska, makes his directorial debut with The Confirmation, another attuned character study of the economically depressed lower middle class Americans. The Confirmation centers on Anthony (Jaeden Lieberher), an eight-year o …Read more

Critics have long recognized the late Taiwanese director Edward Yang as a master, but American audiences have never had the chance to see one of his most major films, 1991’s A Brighter Summer Day. Luckily, the four-hour epic is about to receive a fou …Read more

Julie Delpy’s natural qualities as a performer have been evident since she was first cast by Godard at the age of fourteen, but her uneven directorial output continues with Lolo, a strange and sometimes off-putting romantic comedy. Even while she giv …Read more