Now Playing, Only in Theaters: INSIDE, RIMINI

Two new international movies opening this weekend in North America deserve your attention.

Inside
Now playing in U.S. theaters via Focus Features.

Our own Martin Kudluc saw Inside, directed by Vasilia Katsoupis and starring Willem Dafoe, during the recently-concluded Berlinale, calling the film " an ambitious debut, co-produced by the U.K., Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Greece. The story unfolds in a single luxurious Manhattan penthouse, furnished and decorated with modern and classical art.

Dafoe takes on an art thief called Nemo, who is tasked with lifting several of Egon Schiele's oeuvres. The heist goes awry. Nemo remains confined inside the meticulously designed and awe-inspiringly equipped penthouse stronghold. And he is at the mercy of a malfunctioning smart-home device."

So that's the set-up. How's the delivery? "Inside is as playful as it is contemplative, surpassing genre limitations, and leaving the audience to their own devices following the protagonist, while the film becomes a sandbox on its own."

Rimini
Now playing at Quad Cinema in NYC and coming soon to Los Angeles via Big World Pictures.

Martin Kudluc saw the film at the Berlinale, noting in his review: "Rimini is the first part in the planned cinematic diptych, to be followed by Sparta, about two brothers whose past catches up with them.

Rimini opens up with scenes in a nursing home, trailing the senile father of the two brothers. The scene and style unfold in unmistakable Seidlian aesthetics, connecting directly to the Paradise trilogy."

Should fans of director Ulrich Seidl rejoice? "Seidl still masterfully blends existential melancholia and rambunctious joie de vivre in the limbo of the depopulated and decaying seaside resort."

Now in Theaters highlights international and indie genre films.