If, at any point in the years since 2015’s Son of Saul, you’ve found yourself thinking, “I wonder if László Nemes still likes close-ups,” then I can confirm, having seen his newest film, Sunset, that he does. He also maintains an affinity...
“There are days when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it.” That quote from James Baldwin opens Amma Asante’s Where Hands Touch. Baldwin was referring to America and Asante’s film takes place...
There’s an unavoidable cheapening effect when a non-American director remakes their own film in English. To be churlish about it, these movies are made for the type of person who would prefer The Grudge to Ju-On. Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria was one of the...
Even if you didn’t know going in that Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece is an adaptation of a play (by writers/stars Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava), it wouldn’t take you long to guess as much. Characters here don’t talk; they opine, reflect and declare...
Back in 2008, Paolo Sorrentino and actor Toni Servillo made a film called Il Divo, in which Servillo portrayed former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti. That movie was more sizzle than steak but it was the first major calling card of...
In Wash Westmoreland’s Colette, Dominic West plays a theatre critic (actually, he plays a charlatan but one of the things his character fakes well is theatre criticism). He observes that, while you can put down a boring book or look away...
Dogman starts out bearing some resemblance to a previous film from director Matteo Garrone, 2012’s Reality. That film’s lead was a fishmonger, well liked in his neighborhood; this time around, it’s a dog groomer named Marcello (Marcello Fonte), equally appreciated by the...
One day shy of a year after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Monsters and Men premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. That’s two days shy, then, of the day the women marched and many of the rest of us joined them....
