Like Woody Allen, Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo explores the same material in film after film. Some audiences might find it tiring, but in his hands it’s a mode of artistic refinement akin to the old masters’ approach to painting, where each nuance and …Read more
We Are Alive uses the personal to access the political in a way that feels honest but also sometimes limiting. The film opens with a personal blow to director Carmen Castillo, as she reacts to the death of her friend and political comrade Daniel Bens …Read more
Mia Madre attempts to tackle one of the difficult paradoxes of a death in the family: that even while one’s personal life may come crashing down, the rest of the world keeps turning. Nanni Moretti’s film tries to show this by balancing its story betw …Read more
The Walk centers around one act, Phillipe Petit’s 1974 high wire walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which Hollywood mainstay and visual effects pioneer Robert Zemeckis enlists the full range of movie magic to recreate. It’s a sto …Read more
Michel Gondry has seen his critical fortunes vary based on his collaborators, from the modern classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to the regrettable Green Hornet, but no one has ever doubted his prodigious inventiveness. He’s created one of …Read more
Guy Maddin has always been an inveterate film classicist, recreating the textures and styles of silent-era films with the loving care of a fetishist, and while he’s done exactly that with The Forbidden Room, he’s done it in such a way that the result …Read more
The intriguing question of lineage hangs over the documentary De Palma, which illustrates through clips and candid conversation the colorful career of director Brian De Palma. The film is a loving and entertaining homage by the younger directors Noah …Read more
Some degree of reckless ambition is needed in a director to create something truly original, but it’s endearing to see that ambition tempered with humor, compassion, and personal humility. Early in Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights (which can be considere …Read more
Colonialism has been a fact for centuries, but it’s only recently that it’s become part of the accepted history of the United States, a dark legacy that official figures like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton invoke as part of the long ago past. But a …Read more
The Runner is set in 2010, when New Orleans was still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill further crippled the city’s economy and ecology. Congressman Colin Price (Nicolas Cage), the son of a former mayor, g …Read more
