International: Europe Reviews
Thessaloniki 2026 Review: CANDIDATES OF DEATH, Homemade Horror from Poland
A long-term experiment in filmmaking, Candidates of Death started almost 20 years ago when documentarian Maciej Cuske took his son Stasiu and his friends Rafal and Adrian on a vacation. Friends since kindergarten, the three youths were fans of horror...
TWO PROSECUTORS Review: Horror in a Bureaucratic Hell
Sergei Loznitsa's newest film stars Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Alexander Filippenko, and Anatoli Beliy.
MIROIRS NO. 3 Review: Compact and Masterful, with Affecting Performances
Christian Petzold's film stars Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, and Enno Trebs.
LATE SHIFT Review: Nursing Care Under an Overwhelming Workload
Leonie Benesch delivers a restrained yet striking performance in Petra Volpe's unsparingly realist feature.
SXSW 2026 Review: HOKUM, Be Very Afraid Of Damian McCarthy's Latest
In 2024 Damian McCarthy lit up the horror world with his quietly terrifying Oddity, a film I reviewed for its SXSW world premiere, and while it was topping year end horror lists left and right, I was a bit less...
Berlinale 2026 Review: TRACES Follows Survivor Networks Documenting Wartime Sexual Violence
Ukrainian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko, working with co-director Marysia Nikitiuk, examines the documentation of conflict-related sexual violence during Russia's war against Ukraine through the work of survivor and activist Iryna Dovhan.
Berlinale 2026 Review: LUST Constructs a Minimalist Chamber Study of Authority and Desire
Bulgarian director Ralitza Petrova's sophomore feature continues her examination of individuals shaped by institutional structures, shifting the focus toward a more contained study of psychological control and personal disintegration.
Berlinale 2026 Review: WHERE TO? Turns Late-Night Rides Into a Study of Intimacy and Displacement
Israeli director Assaf Machnes' debut feature unfolds as a dialogue driven chamber piece set within Berlin's nocturnal rideshare circuits.
VIRIDIANA Blu-ray Review: Revelations Over Last Suppers
Luis Buñuel understands the significance of supper. This evening meal, when family and/or friends gather to share the stories of the day, when time can stretch out, ideas discussed, philosophies debated, and ties renewed, it's an event where the bodily...
Berlinale 2026 Review: Porn and Gen Z Intimacy Clashes in Sweet Coming-of-Age TRULY NAKED
Muriel d'Ansembourg's feature debut Truly Naked examines adolescence and sexual education through the unlikely setting of a small family-run pornography business, framing a Gen Z coming-of-age story around competing ideas of intimacy, masculinity, and agency.
Berlinale 2026 Review: NINA ROZA, Child Prodigy Reopens a Migrant Father's Unfinished Past
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles situates a cross-border art-world story within an intimate study of diasporic return, using the investigation of a rural child prodigy to examine authorship, cultural projection, and the unresolved fault lines of migration.
HEEL Review: Empathy Is Tested in Uncomfortable Study of Redemption
Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough star in this twisted psychological thriller.
GHOST ELEPHANTS Review: Werner Herzog Reconciles Pragmatism and Poetry in the Angola Highlands
In 1955, Hungarian born Angolan rancher, businessman, and big game hunter, Josef J. Fénykövi, tracked down and killed the largest land animal on record. He was lauded by Sports Illustrated at the time for this sportsman prowess, although Fénykövi...
Berlinale 2026 Review: FOREST HIGH (FORÊT IVRE), Life in an Alpine Hut
Forest High (orig. Forêt Ivre) takes place almost entirely in and around a hut in the Swiss mountains. Subtitled Three Stories, director Manon Coubia's film follows three volunteers who work there over four seasons. Officially the Refuge d'Ubine des Amis...
Berlinale 2026 Review: YELLOW LETTERS, Golden Bear Winner Traces an Artist Couple Caught in Political Turmoil
Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer star in İlker Çatak's portrait of a pair ensnared in political turmoil in Turkey.
Berlinale 2026 Review: FOUR MINUS THREE, Grief Drama Navigates Loss and Mourning Through Clowning
Valerie Pachner stars, as Austrian filmmaker Adrian Goiginger continues his cycle of true story adaptations with an emotional rollercoaster of a grief drama.
HONEY BUNCH Review: How Love Survives. But Should It?
Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Jason Isaacs, and Kate Dickie star in a gothic psychological thriller, directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli.
Sundance 2026 Review: TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN, Farmers in Montenegro Fight for Their Land
Directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić, the documentary follows what happens when residents fight back against politicians.
Sundance 2026 Review: EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET, Collective Presence Stalls the System
Director Felipe Bustos Sierra documents a spontaneous act of civic resistance in Glasgow, examining how collective presence can momentarily disrupt the mechanisms of state authority.
Sundance 2026 Review: BIRDS OF WAR, War Reporting and Love Collide
Directors Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak are also the film's protagonists, following a 13-year collaboration that unfolds from professional exchange into personal involvement amid the realities of reporting on the Syrian war.
