Asia Argento stars as a wealthy heiress returning to a scarred Venezuela in Jorge Thielen Armand’s entertaining yet vapid Death Has No Master.
Death Has No Master. A Vapid Colonial Drama.
Directors’ Fortnight
La Perra Woofs the Landing
With films about dogs easy to love — because after all, who doesn’t love dogs — it takes a special talent to make something as cynical and ugly as La Perra.
Shana. Chaos Under Pressure.
Anchored by an excellent performance by Eva Huault, Shana is a deeply entertaining Parisian-set tale of Jewish identity and feminine chaos.
Wild Foxes Bobs and Weaves Through the Minefields of Toxic Masculinity
Valery Carnoy’s boxing drama Wild Foxes boasts a standout performance from Samuel Kircher as a teenage boy navigating the mindfields of masculinity.
Peak Everything. Love and Climate Change.
A depressed kennel owner falls in love with a phone technician in Quebecois comedy Peak Everything, the rare fest film with crossover appeal.
Her Will Be Done is Feverish, Ugly and Hard to Shake
With echoes of Wake in Fright and Carrie, Julia Kowalski’s Her Will Be Done is a provocative, satisfying body horror that lingers long in the memory.
The Girl in The Snow Cleverly Belies Its Classical Aesthetic
Multiple layers of ambiguity characterise Louise Hémon’s debut feature, a fascinating turn-of-the-century tale about the snowy road to enlightenment.
Death Does Not Exist Traipses Aimlessly Through the Forest
A fine animation style is wasted by a deadeningly boring script in Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s surrealist eco-thriller Death Does Not Exist.
Plastic Guns. A Perfect Shitpost.
Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s Plastic Guns doubles down on the provocations of Bloody Oranges in an off-kilter, hilarious and deeply nasty farce.
The Other Way Around Is Repetitive. Meaningful. Beautiful. Repetitive.
There is beauty and meaning littered throughout the repetitive actions of Jonás Trueba’s endlessly playful Directors’ Fortnight romcom The Other Way Around.