Thanks to heartfelt performances from Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, and Peter Mullan, Kirk Jones’ ‘I Swear’ overcomes its clear Ken Loach visual inspirations and draws an uplifting portrait of finding purpose in raising awareness of the difficulties of Tourette’s syndrome.
Read MoreBecause of Charli XCX's star-making performance, director Pete Ohs subverts a conventional story with ‘Erupcja’ to deliver a textured, aesthetically daring character study of a broken couple seeking purpose inside a world in total eruption.
Read MoreWhile the first half of Blue Heron seems conventional, the movie reveals itself as anything but and already positions Sophy Romvari as a major voice to watch within contemporary Canadian cinema.
Read MoreThanks to its masterful framing and an impeccable lead performance from Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Two Prosecutors’ overcomes its rather telegraphed conclusion and its alienating structure to become a powerful historical drama that asks its audience not to forget.
Read MoreThanks to incredible, career-best performances from Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, Harry Lighton’s ‘Pillion’ overcomes a relatively conventional story with a transgressive approach to sexuality and offers a glimpse of a world audiences rarely see depicted in mainstream cinema.
Read MoreThanks to heartfelt performances by Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson, Philippa Lowthorpe’s ‘H Is for Hawk’ is effective enough to hold our attention, even if the approach taken here feels a bit too pedestrian.
Read MoreWhile Kate Winslet’s ‘Goodbye June’ may not reinvent the aesthetic and thematic wheel, its story is treated with great urgency and emotional care, allowing the audience to feel the characters’ emotions, rather than being told what to think at any given moment.
Read MoreNicholas Hytner’s ‘The Choral’ shines when it focuses on its protagonists ruminating on the casualties of war, but not so much when drawing character relationships inside the titular choir.
Read MorePaul Feig crafts his first theatrical production since 2019 with an adaptation of ‘The Housemaid’, but the end result leaves much to be desired, despite solid turns from Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar.
Read MoreKaouther Ben Hania’s docu-fiction hybrid ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ is a difficult but necessary document of the atrocities still occurring to this day in Gaza, and, most importantly, the individual human stories no one is currently talking about.
Read MoreWhile Brendan Fraser gives an impassioned performance in ‘Rental Family’, the movie itself is not as heartwarming as it sets out to be.
Read MoreWhile ‘Nuremberg’ boasts a strong cast and admirable intentions, the bizarre choices it makes along the way turn what could’ve been a thought-provoking drama into a hollow and trite object.
Read MoreJoachim Trier offers a profoundly affecting meditation on the healing – and life-affirming – power of art in ‘Sentimental Value’, anchored by a devastatingly brilliant Renate Reinsve, who gives this year’s most soulful performance.
Read MoreJennifer Lawrence gives the best performance of her career in Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Die My Love’. However, the fragmented structure of the movie may prove alienating for audiences, especially as it purposefully antagonizes at almost every turn.
Read MoreJoel Edgerton delivers his best performance to date in Clint Bentley’s ‘Train Dreams’, a complex and emotionally powerful elegy for a lost soul searching for meaning in a life that has left him and the contributions he made to society behind.
Read MoreMore exhausting than it is compelling, Richard Linklater fails to meaningfully illustrate who Lorenz Hart is in his chamber piece, ‘Blue Moon’.
Read More‘Anemone’ should only be watched by those craving another performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, because the film surrounding his incredible, controlled turn does not work at all.
Read MoreThanks to a painterly sense of image-making and captivating turns from Marion Cotillard and Clara Pacini, Lucile Hadžihalilović creates a unique atmosphere with ‘The Ice Tower’, blending the artifice of cinema with the trauma-inducing dread of a child’s fantasy.
Read MoreBenny Safdie breaks the aesthetics that he developed over the years with his brother Josh to craft a surprisingly patient, often discordant docudrama in ‘The Smashing Machine’, which sets his solo directorial career on exciting horizons.
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