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.
Tag: Competition
Foreign Language: Sex, Lies and Chocolate Mushrooms
As messy as its synopsis is understated, Claire Burger’s Foreign Language is a heady mix of teenage sexuality and muddled political engagement.
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.
A Different Man, Sort Of
A Different Man has all the snarky hallmarks of another A24 provocation, but it’s saved by a screenplay that somehow evokes the best of Woody Allen.
Small Things Like These. Faux Terence Davies
Small Things Like These may highlight a vital decades-long human rights abuse but is sadly let down by its derivative imitation of Terence Davies’ best work.
Empty Nets. Empty Catch.
Love fights the forces of economics and corruption in the underwhelming Iranian drama Empty Nets — live from Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
About Dry Grasses. Toxic Masculinity Classes.
Turkish auteur Nilge Bilge Ceylan returns with another long study of a toxic intellectual with the brilliant, Anatolian-set, About Dry Grasses.
The Kids are Not Alright in Russian Found-Footage Doc Manifesto
Found-footage documentary Manifesto is both a startling, necessary film but also a disturbing one, calling into question filmmaking ethics in a fascist state.