Usually Sundance-hype films are overheated and underwhelming. The sly, smart Past Lives is a brilliant exception to the rule.
Yes, Past Lives Is as Good as They Say
Redmond Bacon
Redmond is the editor-in-chief of Journey Into Cinema.
Tótem Piercingly Asks If Love is Enough
A family celebration provides the setting for a haunting coming-of-age tale, courtesy of auteur to watch, Lila Avilés. Golden Bear winner?
In Heroic, The Military Is Anything But (Review and Interview)
Through documentary-like framing and a cool distance from his characters, Zonana riffs on military classics to create a brutal yet intellectual critique of military culture.
A Perfect Parody of French Cinema
There’s not much difference between Passages and a sketch show parody of a French art-house film. Let’s see how European Ira Sachs’ latest film truly is.
The Boring Travails of Disco Boy
Disco Boy remakes Claire Denis for a self-indulgent, ponderous slog through the Nigerian delta with the completely wrong cast.
Berlinale Panorama 2023: Women on the Brink
Three feminine-focused films — from central Europe to the middle-east — push women to the brink in the Berlinale 2023 panorama section.
Descent Into Cinema Episode Four: Live Panorama Chat
Live from the Playce at the Berlinale, we discuss Drifter, Femme, Silver Haze and other fine panorama films to put on your radar.
Accept No Pleasure in the Manodrome
Move over Joker? There’s a new angry white man in town, courtesy of Jesse Eisenberg in the blistering, problematic, increasingly enjoyable Manodrome.
Mehran Tamadon Skillfully Recreates Iranian Prison in Where God is Not
The horrors of Iranian prison are horrifyingly revisited in this powerful, draining documentary film, asking if cinema has the power to change the state.
Travel into The Trans Imagination with Orlando: My Political Biography
Orlando: My Political Biography reframes Virginia Woolf’s seminal 1928 through the modern transgender experience. The result is a compelling act of imagination.