Despite a fine flair for creating aesthetically pleasing images, Music is a thoroughly singular filmmaking experience hard to genuinely love.
You Have to Try Very Hard to Appreciate Angela Schanelec’s Music
Festivals
Reviews and dispatches exploring the best new cinema premiering around the world.
Further Adventures in the Panorama Section: Women Strike Back
The patriarchy pushed them to the edge. These three films from the Berlinale Panorama section show how women can fight back.
A Brief Foray into The Generation Section
A story about the allure and freedom of war and an amusing memoir about growing up in a psychiatric facility play in the Berlinale Generation section.
Yes, Past Lives Is as Good as They Say
Usually Sundance-hype films are overheated and underwhelming. The sly, smart Past Lives is a brilliant exception to the rule.
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.
Berlinale Forum 2023: An Incomplete Past Treating an Unclear Future
A handful of forum films, including new works by James Benning and Claire Simon, probe the ways history, ever contested, is inscribed onto the future.
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.