Ben Rivers’ latest feature is a long and meandering slog through the apocalypse that might work in a museum, but is deadening on the big screen.
Mare’s Nest Belongs in a Museum
Festivals
Reviews and dispatches exploring the best new cinema premiering around the world.
White Snail. Love Covered in Slime.
Space Dogs directors Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s first fully fiction feature is a dark and disturbing love story set in Belarus.
In The Birthday Party, The Rich Eat Themselves
Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s Piazza Grande film The Birthday Party lets Willem Dafoe chew the scenery, but its not one of his essential performances.
“Men have a lot to learn from women” — João Rosas on The Luminous Life
The Luminous LIfe director João Rosas discusses using cinema as cartography and charting the life of the same child through different films.
John Garfield: The Father of Method Acting
Films by Gena Rowlands and John Garfield at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival show us the deep emotional power of the method acting approach.
Don’t Call Me Mama’s Scandalous Scandinavians
Don’t Call Me Mama is Scandinavia’s answer to Babygirl that unfortunately gives off a truly icky Blame It On Rio vibe.
Skin on Skin Looks for Love in The Meat House
Two men try and find love amidst the horror and bruality of a German slaughterhouse in Simon Schneckenburger’s excellent short Skin on Skin.
The Visitor’s Beautiful Baltic Banality
Despite its preponderance of gorgeous images, The Visitor provides an emotionally-detached experience that can’t match the magic of its visuals.
I Saw the Face of God in The Jet Wash. Celtic Spirit on Super 8.
Mark Jenkin’s loopy tour of the Celtic regions of the world (and Los Angeles) is British cinema and its most pure and eccentric. Essential viewing.
Broken Voices Makes The Right Choices
Ondřej Provazník’s sophomore film is a slow-burn look at abuse featuring a brilliant performance from Juraj Loj as a manipulative choirmaster.