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3/5
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The Quiet Son
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
While The Quiet Son doesn’t sermonize, it’s unveiled in a clear-cut, straightforward manner which doesn’t suggest there’s any real answer for prevention. Instead, as is often the case, it’s about humans having to deal with picking up the pieces.
Posted Sep 05, 2024
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3/5
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Maldoror
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
Perhaps a bit more mainstream than might be expected from the distinctive human miseries usually employed by du Welz, Maldoror is an enjoyably meaty recuperation of an infamous scandal.
Posted Sep 05, 2024
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1/5
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Diva Futura
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
Initially a light comedy, neither the screenplay nor its key players seem to know when frivolity is supposed to shift gears when personal tragedies, legal backlashes, and a shifting market desiring misogyny becomes apparent.
Posted Sep 05, 2024
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1/5
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Joker: Folie à Deux
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Scott Silver’s iffy bits of dialogue aren’t able to be masked by the strength of the cast this time around, especially with a returning lead who, when he isn’t caterwauling through endless musical numbers, appears to have slipped into eternal somnolence.
Posted Sep 04, 2024
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4/5
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Baby Invasion
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
There’s a definitive sense of reflecting the context of characters and their behaviors which does not feel judgmental or suggest the necessity of moral sermonizing
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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2/5
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Harvest
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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Harvest ironically never achieves even a tepid boil, only succeeding in suggesting its rather unsympathetic villagers are complicit in the endless cycle of ignorance and xenophobia.
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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3/5
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I'm Still Here
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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Fernanda Torres gives the kind of performance destined to be hailed as one of her career’s greatest highlights (and will likely make her better known abroad).
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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3.5/5
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The Room Next Door
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
If at first [the movie] may not initially feel like an Almodóvar film, his crew quickly coalesces on his wavelength, perhaps aided most significantly by production designer Inbal Weinberg, who whips up one of his most sumptuous color coded schemes ever.
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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3.5/5
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Vermiglio
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
While it takes a bit for the orientation of these characters to align, one’s patience is well earned for a compelling portrait of resilience and resistance.
Posted Sep 03, 2024
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4/5
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The Brutalist
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Corbet hearkens back to a grand tradition, now nearly extinct, of what cinema could and should be.
Posted Sep 01, 2024
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2.5/5
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And Their Children After Them
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
It conjures a specific time and place with a hallowed reverence which makes it enjoyable enough despite some superficiality.
Posted Sep 01, 2024
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2.5/5
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Battlefield
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Everything about Battlefield eventually feels a bit muted, as its most interesting elements dealt with the role of medical professionals and the forced sacrifice of ideals beneath the yoke of political expectations.
Posted Sep 01, 2024
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3/5
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The Order
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
This film may be casting an eye at ignorance, hatred, and terror from the safe distance of the past, but what enhances the grotesqueness is how it still speaks to the present.
Posted Sep 01, 2024
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3/5
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Three Friends
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
While all of this plays out as expected, there are some profound moments which transpire, mostly courtesy of India Hair.
Posted Aug 30, 2024
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4/5
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Babygirl
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
While it has all the requisite aspects of a contemporary erotic thriller, Reijn wades into something more thrilling -- authenticity. In the words of Freud, it is a film worthy of reclaiming the original meaning of "beautiful."
Posted Aug 30, 2024
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3/5
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Quiet Life
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Avranos’s chilly, dystopian portrait of Sweden often feels rather daring. Ultimately, however, its bleakness is not met with an equal measure of sagacity.
Posted Aug 29, 2024
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3/5
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Kill the Jockey
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Fans of Kafka or Anna Kavan might rejoice in its droll horrors of slippery insinuations, particularly with a pronouncedly enjoyable first act and a delirious mad rush in the climax.
Posted Aug 29, 2024
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2/5
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Maria
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Maria may be a love letter to its subject, but it also does a disservice in declawing her.
Posted Aug 29, 2024
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2.5/5
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Burton turns on the juice to see what shakes loose, but it’s hard not to believe something a bit more concise wasn’t possible.
Posted Aug 28, 2024
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3.5/5
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By the Stream
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Sweet, and like all of Sangsoo’s work, never overstated, it leaves the indelible impression of how sometimes, going all the way back to the origin sometimes doesn’t yield the answers we’re looking for.
Posted Aug 21, 2024
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2.5/5
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The Life Apart
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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Although not exactly antiquated, there’s something a bit rigid about The Life Apart begging to be loosened up a bit, lacking a certain passion from its musical prodigy who can consort with the dead and conquer her banal adversaries.
Posted Aug 21, 2024
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2/5
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New Dawn Fades
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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Despite its visual prowess, New Dawn Fades can’t quite establish any emotional connectivity to its subject, thus robbing it of any tension, terror, or even dread.
Posted Aug 21, 2024
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3/5
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Toxic
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Playing like a collection of experiences leading up to an integral moment for both young women, Bliuvaitė constructs less a narrative and more of a feeling.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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3/5
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Moon
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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Moon brings us to a nail biting precipice, and then realistically curbs our expectations.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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2/5
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Transamazonia
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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Strangely oblique character development and a myriad of narrative cliches undermine the possibilities of reaching beyond the obvious, leading to a sanitized, even romanticized version of what feels like rosy-tinted post-colonialist semantics.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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1.5/5
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Weightless
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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Weightless is extensively disappointing as a narrative feature considering Fgaier’s impressive filmography as an editor, there remains evidence of her particular forte, visually speaking.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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2.5/5
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Fire of Wind
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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Ultimately a tad tiresome even with a slim running time of seventy-four minutes, Fire of Wind suggests Mateus has the eye of a formidable filmmaker, but the narrative feels like more of a concept than statement.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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3/5
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Youth (Hard Times)
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
[Youth (Hard Times)] may be presenting the same, long-winded information over and over again, but then, how else could we possibly relate to how deadening these realities can be?
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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3/5
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Salve Maria
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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Coll builds tension quite astutely, with Weissmahr’s tight wound Maria exhibiting signs and symptoms which exemplify her feeling of entrapment.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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4/5
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The Sparrow in the Chimney
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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In their third feature, the Swiss filmmaking duo Ramon and Silvan Zürcher complete their metaphorical animal themed trilogy with a scream of significant anguish (and relief).
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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3/5
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Mexico 86
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
A film which feels anxiety laden and compassionate while also reflecting on the terrors of the past and the countless individuals who never received their reckoning.
Posted Aug 16, 2024
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2.5/5
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Death Will Come
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Employing a moody synth score atop a lethargically paced elliptical narrative speckled with a vast array of thinly drawn superficial characters, the film’s slow burn never feels more than lukewarm.
Posted Aug 09, 2024
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3.5/5
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The Vourdalak
(2023)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
"An amusingly bizarre oddity channeling a classical tradition of horror."
Posted Jun 20, 2024
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2/5
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Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything
(2023)
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Nicholas Bell
|
The film’s biggest frustration is the absence of anything innately alarming. Shot by Armin Dierolf (A Piece of Sky, 2022), the film is well stocked in beautiful visual palettes, but ultimately doesn’t have much to say.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
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4/5
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The Seed of the Sacred Fig
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
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Rasoulof’s film sometimes feels like a blunt instrument, but he’s speaking truth to power through cinema in a way which cannot be misinterpreted.
Posted May 28, 2024
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2/5
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The Most Precious of Cargoes
(2024)
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Nicholas Bell
|
Well-intentioned and a bit harpooned by its own sincerity, the sentimental moral lesson it extols, to borrow an Andrezj Zulawski title, seems to be ‘the most important thing is to love.’
Posted May 28, 2024
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1.5/5
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Beating Hearts
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
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[Gilles Lellouche] seems to be going for broke but ends up going absolutely nowhere with this rambling heap of empty-headed nonsense which seems to actively avoid following its own instincts.
Posted May 23, 2024
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3/5
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Motel Destino
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
It’s an enjoyably louring queer noir and, following the dull costume drama Firebrand (2023), it’s a welcome return to Aïnouz’s erotic flair.
Posted May 23, 2024
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2.5/5
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Grand Tour
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Ultimately, it’s like the anti-Odyssey, except we’re not ever made to feel intrinsically interested about the outcome.
Posted May 22, 2024
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4/5
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Anora
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
At this point in his career, filmmaker Sean Baker seems to have covered all the major facets of sex work experiences. Surprisingly, and quite delightfully, he’s managed to use his favorite motifs to create an exceptional screwball comedy with Anora.
Posted May 22, 2024
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1/5
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Parthenope
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
If this is meant to be Sorrentino’s way of conceiving what a woman’s empowerment should look like after a filmography littered with aging playboys, it’s certainly a disconsolate, disappointing juxtaposition.
Posted May 22, 2024
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3/5
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The Shrouds
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
It’s perhaps appropriate this moody narrative feels as lethargic as the act of decay itself. To some, this film may be fascinating, and others, tiresome.
Posted May 22, 2024
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3/5
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East of Noon
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Though it takes some time orienting oneself in this universe, there are some powerful statements about what stands as the most profound way to survive an autocracy -- by staying devoted to imagination and the creative process.
Posted May 22, 2024
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2/5
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Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
There seems to be little point in Serebrennikov’s watered down Limonov, which has the audacity to include The Ballad as part of its title when it clearly avoids capturing what made Eduard Limonov extraordinary, notable, controversial, or even human.
Posted May 21, 2024
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3.5/5
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Miséricorde
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Ultimately, it’s a film about satisfying one’s needs in the face of untenable circumstances. The affable abbot explains, “I have learned to love without return.” But, as we all know, desires and needs don’t disappear.
Posted May 21, 2024
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3.5/5
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The Apprentice
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong are enjoyably compelling as a match made in capitalist hell.
Posted May 20, 2024
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4/5
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The Substance
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Fargeat starts out in slow, familiar territory before slamming into fever pitch for a Grand Guignol bloodbath which might just be the best bit of straight faced body horror since Cronenberg’s clutch of 1980s titles.
Posted May 20, 2024
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Emilia Perez
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
A compelling odyssey of mixed tropes which coalesce into a film not only vigorous but bold. In its own blunt way, the film exemplifies the enhancing power of what musicals can be.
Posted May 20, 2024
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3.5/5
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Caught by the Tides
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Jia Zhangke’s wife, Zhao Tao, who has appeared in a majority of his narratives since 2000’s Platform, remains the vibrant highlight as a mute, melancholic woman fashioned like a figure from silent cinema.
Posted May 20, 2024
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2.5/5
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Savanna and the Mountain
(2024)
|
Nicholas Bell
|
Although this is a recent example of corporate sublimation, Carneiro’s formulation reflects a tale as old as time, though no less frustratingly potent.
Posted May 19, 2024
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