Film Festival reviews, interviews, and podcast episodes.
NYFF 2025: Dry Leaf
Written by Eric Zhu
“Like many of the best films, “Dry Leaf” is endlessly thought-provoking, but gracious and easygoing on a moment-to-moment basis. Unencumbered by narrative, it’s motivated by the simple pleasures of pastoral vistas, rich humanity, and…”
VIFF 2025: With Hasan in Gaza
Written by Eric Zhu
“For us, unbound from the burden of direct representation, these images invite speculation of who these people are, of who they might be now, of lives before these images, and of Palestine’s future.”
VIFF 2025: Christy
Written by Taylor Baker
“With some decent fight choreography and dedicated turns by Merritt Weaver and Ethan Embry as Christy’s mother and father, this would-be redemption story amounts to little by the time we see Sweeney walk out and bump fists with…”
VIFF 2025: Two Prosecutors (Zwei Staatsanwälte)
Written by Taylor Baker
“Losznitsa, a director who primarily films documentaries, lets his cameras roll for extended sequences, allowing the spaces to come to life and the characters time to inhabit them. It is when Kornyev acts with kindness or humanity that the entire social and physical structure seems to react like an immune system…”
NYFF 2025: The Currents (Las Corrientes)
Written by Eric Zhu
“Although various metaphorical dimensions of water are explored, chief among them the feeling of being trapped in a vortex between Lina’s escapist desire and maternal love, “The Currents” is a film about keeping up appearances in a disembodied society, a struggle that renders…”
NYFF 2025: Levers
Written by Eric Zhu
“The disruption of daily routine that the darkness inspires, and the corresponding subversion of cinematic legibility, are what enable the film’s expansive sprawl. Perhaps the intimate nocturnal atmosphere is also…”
NYAFF 2025: Transcending Dimensions
Written by Eric Zhu
“Operating simultaneously as urban revenge thriller, space opera, and a Japanese version of a wuxia flick, Toyoda treats each genre vernacular as part of the same overarching prison. Attempting to liberate the film from narrative, he subverts traditional…”
NYAFF 2025: Queerpanorama
Written by Eric Zhu
“Despite the references to real-world tensions, “QueerPanorama” exists in a punishingly claustrophobic headspace. This is most obvious in the barren abstraction of Cheung’s apartment, where Cheung’s arrested development is on…”
SIFF 2025: Invention
Written by Taylor Baker
“What emerges is neither purely documentary nor entirely fictional but, as its title suggests, an invention unto itself. It’s a film about the descendants of snake oil salesmen and big dreamers, about the complicated inheritances we receive…”
SIFF 2025: Sorry, Baby
Written by Taylor Baker
“Eva’s sincerity and genuineness allow this material to be repurposed in a way that is not only sincere but feels original. You can sense her authorship creating this project, and that vision allows the cohesion of those subgenres to crystallize and…”
Sundance 2025: By Design
Written by Jeff Sparks
“The eccentric nature of the concept goes hand in hand with the way the film unfolds, which sees scenes focusing more on ideas rather than any semblance of a sensical story. Through its…”
VIFF 2024: Presence
Written by Taylor Baker
“A whodunit can rarely refrain from giving itself away entirely in its opening moments, and it is even rarer for one to be presented with such experimentation. This is not a haunted house story. “Presence” is about a haunted family…”
The Apprentice
Written by Anna Harrison
“Who the hell wants a Trump biopic?
His supporters eschew the so-called “Hollywood elite,” his critics are sick of hearing about him, and imitating his distinct style of speech was old eight years ago. Thus when Ali Abbasi announced “The Apprentice” to the world, I was among the many who groaned…
VIFF 2024: Measures for a Funeral
Written by Michael Clawson
““Measures for a Funeral,” arrives as her most ambitious work to date, and as a culmination of her collaborations with actress Deragh Campbell. More than just a leap in scale over her previous work, “Measures” suggests…”
VIFF 2024: Dream Team
Written by Michael Clawson
“Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn’s “Dream Team” is what you might call a “vibes” movie. A sparkly, sun-dappled, and pleasurably silly riff on crime drama, it melds erotica and absurdism through a plot that’s digressive and comically…”
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