International: Latin America Reviews
SXSW 2024 Review: TOLL, The Price Paid, The Damage Done
Maeve Jinkings and Kauan Alvarenga star in Carolina Markowicz's sophomore feature.
SXSW 2024 Review: THE IN BETWEEN, Stop Your Sobbing
Director Robie Flores and producer Alejandro Flores fill their debut feature with wistful yearning and thoughtful observations on their hometown, straddling Texas and Mexico.
TóTEM Review: Domestic, Universal, Heartbreaking, Morbidly Hilarious
This movie killed me.
Viennale 2023 Review: ABOUT THIRTY (ARTURO A LOS 30), Young and Restless in Buenos Aires
Martín Shanly directs and stars in a drama about the shift from the youthful optimism of Generation Y to a growing sense of disillusionment amid life's absurdities.
Viennale 2023 Review: THE PRACTICE Seeks Mindfulness Amid Mid-Life Restart
Martín Rejtman employs deadpan absurdism to satirize the trials of mid-life in the life of a yoga coach.
RADICAL Review: Sometimes Superheroes Don't Wear Capes, They Teach Instead
Based on Joshua Davis’s 2013 article for Wired, “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses,” Radical, a stirring, poignant drama co-written and adapted by Christopher Zalla (Blood of My Blood), literally and figuratively revolves around Jose Urbina Lopez...
Montreal Nouveau 2023 Review: CIELO ABIERTO, Slow Textures Reveal Quiet Truths
We often tend to think of the ravages of colonialismin terms of forests ravaged, animal populations decimated - but colonialism was built with stone. The cities, and especially the moments to white supremacy, came from the stone and hard labour...
New York 2023 Review: PICTURES OF GHOSTS, Ephemeral Nature of Our Lives
Brazilian director Mendonça Filho serves as our expert guide to his beloved city of Recife, combining his own experience and his love of cinema.
Fantastic Fest 2023 Review: RAGE (Rabia), Growing Tension And Fear Gives Way to a Bloody Finale
Alan survives his mother's death, forced to hide by his father in a secluded housing unit.
There, he discovers hidden messages that reveal his father is a werewolf. Alan has to do
something before the next full moon catches up with them.
Venice 2023 Review: MALQUERIDAS Exposes Motherhood Incarcerated
Director Tana Gilbert juxtaposes personal moments against the stark reality of prison life in her feature-length debut, shot clandestinely in a prison.
Toronto 2023 Review: WHEN EVIL LURKS, Absolutely No One Is Safe
Gun shots ring out late at night, somewhere in the middle of rural Argentina. Brothers Pedro and Jimi head out the end of their property the next morning to investigate and discover a body, or, parts of a body. Further...
EL CONDE Review: Pablo Larraín's Anti-Pinochet Satire Soars On Its Vampiric Metaphor
For Chileans, September 11th has an entirely different meaning than it does for Americans. For the latter, September 11th refers to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the nearly 3,000 lives lost. For...
Cannes 2023 Review: THE DELINQUENTS, Sensationally Entertaining Bank-Heist Dramedy
Daniel Elías and Esteban Bigliardi star as bank colleagues who rob their employer in Rodrigo Moreno's Argentinian comedy drama.
THE HOLE IN THE FENCE Review: The Cruelty is the Point
"The rich are very different from you and me." F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said this with an apparently envy and longing to be rich. And there is a idea that most people want to be rich - but really, most...
THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE Review: A Chorus of Anger and Longing
Cows might be one of the few animals whose 'wild' version no longer exists; now bred solely in domestication, they represent how humans have forcibly adapted the natural world for our wants, without regard to the consequences. But now the...
Panic Fest 2023 Review: INVOKING YELL, Black Metal Blair Witch Invites You Into the Woods
Chilean writer/director Patricio Valladares returns with a new slice-of-life horror film.
DRY GROUND BURNING Review: A Cinematic Act of Political Defiance
Directors Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós fluidly combine fictional elements with reality, highlighting the lives of people in Sol Nascente that are often stranger than fiction.
TRENQUE LAUQUEN Review: Sprawling, Adventurous, Wildly Imaginative
Laura Citarella directed; Laura Paredes, Rafael Spregelburd, Ezequiel Pierri, Juliana Muras, Elisa Carricajo and Verónica Llinás star.
FIST OF THE CONDOR Review: You Will Believe This Man Can Fly
Marko Zaror, Eyal Meyer, Gina Aguad, Fernanda Urrejola, and Man Soo Yoon star in a martial arts movie from Chile, directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza.
SXSW 2023 Review: CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT, A Magical Realist Triumph From First Time Filmmaker Tomás Gómez Bustillo
A magical realist fantasy, first time director Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s Chronicles of a Wandering Saint imagines the path to heaven for a pious woman with dreams of sainthood. Combining old world, small town charm with modern technology and gentle humor, Saint...