Festivals Reviews
New York 2026 Review: BUCKING FASTARD, Kate and Rooney Mara Dig a Tunnel of Love
Real life sisters Kate and Rooney Mara play sisters in Werner Herzog's modern fairytale.
New York 2026 Review: MY WIFE CRIES, Love Abstractions
Agathe Bonitzer and Vladimir Vulevic star in Angela Schanelec's new film.
New York 2026 Review: A LONG WINTER, Hauntingly Beautiful Drama of Longing for a Change
Director Andrew Haigh's new drama stars Fred Hechinger, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Caitríona Balfe.
New York 2026 Review: POSSIBLE LOVE Examines Class Divide
It's surely one of the finest films of the year, and yet another masterpiece by Lee Chang-dong.
Toronto 2026 Review: THE SMELL OF APPLES, Subtle, Unsettling Coming-of-Age Drama Under Apartheid
John Trengove adapts Mark Behr's novel into a restrained, disquieting coming-of-age drama that filters apartheid-era privilege, racial hierarchy and paternal idealization through a child's limited understanding.
Netherlands 2026: DOWNTOWN Opens Festival, Wins Dutch Film Critics' Award
There's something special going on with Michiel van Erp's new film. That the cast and crew received a standing ovation at the opening of the Netherlands Film Festival (NFF) last Friday isn't all that unusual (festival opening, enthusiastic audience), but...
Toronto 2026 Review: TEHRAN, UNDER THE SKIN Reveals the Politics Beneath the Promise of Transformation
Afsaneh Salari's formally controlled documentary examines cosmetic surgery in Iran as an unstable expression of conformity, resistance, consumer desire, and bodily autonomy.
New York 2026 Review: NAZA, AI-Assisted Genocide
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor directed the documentary. Once we delegate our moral obligation to AI, we've already lost whatever we are fighting for.
New York 2026 Review: ROSE By Any Other Name
Sandra Hüller and Caro Braun star in Markus Schleinzer's period drama.
New York 2026 Review: PAPER TIGER, No Crime, Yet Punishment
Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson star in director James Gray's crime thriller.
Vlissingen 2026 Review: WHISPERS IN THE WOODS Stuns With Visual Poetry
During the opening titles of Vincent Munier's new documentary, you watch a forest, for minutes, with trees slowly emerging from the fog, while Hildur Guðnadóttir's Fólk Fær Andlit music plays. Seen on the big screen it's a jawdropper of a...
Toronto 2026 Review: WOMAN UNKNOWN, Provocative Drama of Survival and Retribution
May el-Toukhy's film, by virtue of winning the Golden Lion, is an automatic entrant into the Best International Film Oscar race.
Venice 2026 Review: LOVERS IN THE BLUE NIGHT, Tender Social Drama Caught in Its Own Emotional Web
Anuparna Roy's second feature intertwines queer longing, displacement, caste and emotional misrecognition in the nocturnal margins of Mumbai.
Venice 2026 Review: ARRESTED MEMORY, Screwball Cop Caper Brings Melancholy to the Police-Action Formula
Japanese cult filmmaker Sabu refreshes the police-action formula with screwball comedy and melancholic undertones.
Venice 2026 Review: JUPITER, Claustrophobic Political Thriller for the Current Time
Alexandre Smia's gripping feature debut locks Denis Ménochet inside the machinery of presidential power, where rational calculations lead toward an unthinkable conclusion.
Toronto 2026 Review: MARIE MADELEINE, An Unforgettable Experience
Géssica Généus directs and stars.
Toronto 2026 Review: EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE
Opening with one of the most pleasurable and ambient scenes of 2026, Everything Else Is Noise announces its intentions immediately. Gridlocked traffic in a Mexico City intersection struggles to move and to find space in a complex interactive dance, while...
Toronto 2026 Review: THE UNKNOWN, Elevated Body-Swap Thriller Is A Magisterial Masterwork
Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider lead Oscar-winner Arthur Harari's mind-bending thriller.
Vlissingen 2026 Review: TOO MANY BEASTS Delightfully Zigs And Zags
A few minutes into Sarah Arnold's debut film Too Many Beasts I was wondering if the booklet of Vlissingen's Film by the Sea Festival had been misprinted. A comedy? This? Judging from the gore, lighting, music and ehm... bodycount, I...
Toronto 2026 Review: UNION TOWN, The Power Divide Is Real
With Union Town, master documentarian Barbara Kopple completes a trilogy she began with the Oscar winning documentaries Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) and American Dream (1990). From the coal mines of Kentucky to the factories of the Midwest, Kopple shifts her focus to New York...
