International: Asia
Fantasia 2024 Review: GHOST CAT ANZU, Farts in the General Direction of Studio Ghibli
To the sounds of cicadas during a Tokyo summer, 11-year-old Karin and her father Tetsuya leave the city by train to visit a countryside temple where the caretaker is the grandfather she has never met. It is a grand old...
Anime Summer 2024: THE ELUSIVE SAMURAI, Reluctant Hero
The light-hearted historical action series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
ONLY THE RIVER FLOWS Review: Finding Acceptable Truth
Directed by Wei Shujun, the Chinese murder mystery questions what is considered truth in our complicated modern society.
FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE 4K Review: The Personal Is Political
Crushing almost sixty years of twentieth-century turmoil into less run time than the equally decade-skippy first season of HBO's House of the Dragon, Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine joins the Criterion Collection this week in a new 4K transfer. The...
MotelX 2024: SASQUATCH SUNSET, IN A VIOLENT NATURE And ODDITY Lead First Wave
Our friends at MotelX, the excellent genre film festival in Lisbon, Portugal, have annonced the first wave of titles for this year's festival, coming up this September. Festival standouts Sasquatch Sunset, In A Violent Naure, Oddity, Cuckoo, Humanist Vampire Seeking...
Fantasia 2024 Review: TATSUMI, A Gritty Yakuza Street Drama With A Broken Heart
I am happy that these kinds of gritty, but emotionally tragic crime films are still being made. Hiroshi Shôji’s Tatsumi is one of those skuzzy neighborhood dramas, the kind soaked in poverty, spit, blood, and tears. Where the crime feels...
Karlovy Vary 2024 Review: GRAND TOUR, A Cinematic Travelogue Blending Past and Present
The Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes merges genres, time periods, and cinematic techniques to create a post-modern exploration of cinema's fluid nature, offering a sophisticated and reflective homage to the art form that challenges conventional narrative boundaries.
Friday One Sheet: TATSUMI
I remain ever a fan of taking a compelling still frame form the film itself, and composing it into key art. Below is the poster for Yakuza drama, Tatsumi, in which leads Yûya Endô and Kokoro Morita offer each other...
BiFan 2024 Review: DEATH SONG, Colonial-Era Romance Sings a Lush, Eye-Poppingly Melodramatic Tune
Kim Ho-sun, one of the key directors of 1970s cinema, returned to the spotlight in the early 1990s with the sprawling period romantic epic Death Song, about the torrid affair between Korea's first professional soprano and a playwright during Korea's...
BiFan 2024 Review: THE TENANTS, Freaky Korean Real Estate Horror Allegory Lingers in the Mind
Real estate woes, job security anxiety and social inequality, all neatly packed into a metaphorical dystopia. No doubt about it, The Tenants is definitely a Korean film. Yet by providing a novel twist on its elements and staying true to...
Anime Summer 2024 Guide: What We've Seen, Liked, and Loved
(*UPDATED 7/23/24*). Summer 2024 began Thursday, June 20, which also marked the launch of Anime Summer 2024, and a subsequent onslaught of shows. In the U.S., where I reside, I have subscriptions to Crunchyroll, which simulcasts many shows that debut...
Anime Summer 2024: NO LONGER ALLOWED IN ANOTHER WORLD, Suicide Is Painful
The protagonist wants to die, making for a gloomy adventure that tries to be cheerful. The series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Anime Summer 2024: THE MAGICAL GIRL AND THE EVIL LIEUTENANT USED TO BE ARCHENEMIES, From Deadly Serious to Just Silly
Is it love at first sight? Can enemies ever become lovers? The new comedy-adventure romance series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Anime Summer 2024: THE OSSAN NEWBIE ADVENTURER, TRAINED TO DEATH BY THE MOST POWERFUL PARTY, BECOMES INVINCIBLE, You're Never Too Old
An office clerk decides to change jobs and work in the field. One big problem: he's 30! The comic adventure series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Anime Summer 2024: MAYONAKA PUNCH, Content Creator and Vampire, Together Again
An unlikely pairing will test each one's creativity, in a funny new series, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
DEMON POND, GUMMO, Val Lewton, PANDORA'S BOX: Criterion in October 2024
Folk horror from Japan! Angelic and devilish souls from rural America (US)! Val Lewton horror from Hollywood! Melodrama from Germany! In October 2024, Criterion plans to release a rich collection of horror-month appropriate titles from across the world. To be...
Neuchâtel 2024 Review: ENNENNUM Is Science Fiction At Its Finest
On Saturday the 13th of July, the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival had its closing ceremony, complete with the handing out of its awards. As a part of the Critic's Jury this year, we handed our award for best feature...
Mediterrane 2024 Review: LIFE, Novelistic Philosophical Drama Tackles Loss and Redemption
Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz weaves a tale of provincial patriarchy and existentialism, following the intertwined lives of a rural baker and a young woman after a derailed arranged marriage.
Mediterrane 2024 Review: VIET AND NAM, Mesmerizing Slow Drama Explores Personal and National Histories
Vietnamese filmmaker Truong Minh Quy has crafted one of 2024's most intriguing films, using contemplative visuals exploring personal and national histories against the backdrop of a romance of two young queer Vietnamese miners.
Mediterrane 2024 Review: MEETING WITH POL POT Unmasks Khmer Rouge Genocidal Utopia
Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh offers a haunting exploration of the Khmer Rouge regime through the eyes of three French journalists and the utopia gone wrong.
