Hippos become a metaphor for Colombia, the state of humanity and the world’s capacity for cruelty in Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’s unclassifiable Pepe.
Pepe is Dead. Long Live Pepe.
Redmond Bacon
Redmond is the editor-in-chief of Journey Into Cinema.
Matt and Mara, Between Poetry and Prose
Finding that magical, liminal space between poetry and prose, Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara cleverly captures the contradictions of the human imagination.
Isabelle Huppert is an Agent of Chaos in A Traveler’s Needs
Isabelle Huppert is the worst French teacher of all time in Hong Sangsoo’s sly and very funny comment on Korean national anxieties.
Architecton Insists Upon Itself
Architecton has some awe-inspiring visuals, but its let down by its distracting high frame rate and suspect choice of images.
Sterben Hits the Thin Line with Ease
Funnier than most out-and-out comedies, Sterben captures the messy absurdity of life in all its glory, despite, or perhaps, because of, the sad subject matter.
Two Glasses of Wine and a Packet of Chips
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas, 2024) is the lockdown comedy that finds little dramatic potential in its set-up, feeling like a 100-minute episode of a sitcom.
Polyphonic Russian Voices, Deftly Intercepted
A rigorous and brutal documentation of Russian brutality in Ukraine, Intercepted’s absences stir the worst recesses of the human imagination.
Another End. We’ve Got Black Mirror at Home.
Piero Messina’s science-fiction Another End fails to inspire interesting questions or interest the viewer visually. It’s a bust, live from Berlin Film Festival.
Sleep With Your Eyes Open. Postcards from the Past
Sleep With Your Eyes Open uses an elastic narrative form to paint an ironic portrait of Chinese migrant life in Brazil, to both its benefit and detriment.
Brief History of a Family: Failson v. Social Climber
The problems with China’s one-child policy are laid bare in Jianjie Lin’s effective and creepy debut Brief History of a Family, live from Berlinale Panorama.