Daniel Hui’s chamber piece makes the most of its limited location to provide fascinating ruminations on the reverberations of Singaporean history.
Small Hours of the Night Gives Testimony to Disembodied Dissidence
Tag: Film
Days of Happiness Plays the Notes, Not the Music
Days of Happiness may offer the antidote to Tár’s toxicity, but it lacks the passion needed to make for a masterful conductor character study.
For Night Will Come. The Vampire Genre (Partially) Undone.
The perils of being a vampire in a regular-old world are subtly investigated in For Night Will Come — beating away clichés before eventually succumbing to them.
The Freewheeling Spirit of Bolaño Is Excellently Channelled in Foremost By Night
A free-wheeling, three-part riot of formal invention, Víctor Iriarte’s excellent debut is at once aesthetically rigorous and politically pointed.
Sidonie In Japan. Translation, Adrift
Sidonie In Japan is a classic example of a fine actress phoning it in, wasting Huppert’s talents in a generic, unconvincing cross-cultural examination of grief.
Stolen Just Keeps Getting Better
Indian movie Stolen levels up scene after scene, moving from a tense, whodunnit to a full-blown, white-knuckle thriller — live from Venice Film Festival.
Chuck Chuck Baby. I Said Maybe!
A not-quite musical filled with loveliness and laughs, Chuck Chuck Baby is the operatic soap opera I never knew I needed — live from Edinburgh Film Festival.
Stepne Ploddingly Trudges Through Ukraine’s Tragic Past
Dull visuals and an unengaging plot make Ukrainian village tale Stepne, playing in competition, an enervating watch — live from Locarno Film Festival.
The Vanishing Soldier. Israel Smoulders.
The Vanishing Soldier uses its picarasque, free-wheeling form to investigate the complexities and paradoxes of modern Isreal — to mixed results.
Animal Oozes with Summertime Sadness
The pitfalls of always providing entertainment are perfectly probed in Animal, Sofia Exarchou’s excellent sophomore film.