International: Europe
Jan Svankmajer's FAUST Opening in Virtual Cinemas
Pioneering Czech animator Jan Švankmajer has inspired devoted fans of his work around the world. And if your response to that statement is: "who?" it just shows that you haven't been introduced to any of his films yet. Now is...
MotelX 2020: MATA, PELICAN BLOOD Key Award Winners This Year's Festival
One day left in this year's MotelX Film Festival and the winners were announced last night. From our conversations with some of the staff at the fest this past week MotelX has gone off without too many glitches. Pulling...
MotelX 2020 Review: ICH-CHI, Reality Bending Mystical Horror From Indigenous Russia
A Yakut family run an isolated farm in the Republic of Sakha, the largest region in Russia, but also the most inhospitable. Tensions are on the rise when one of their sons returns home with his wife and child, begging...
THE TRIP: Noomi Rapace, Aksel Hennie Join Director Tommy Wirkola
Filmmaker Tommy Wirkola made his bones with the splatter horror-comedy Dead Snow (2009) and then helmed the consistently entertaining fantasy-action picture Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013). In between those two, he contributed his writing talents to the great Norwegian...
Sitges 2020: ANONYMOUS ANIMALS Trailer Presents New French Horror
Set to premiere at the Sitges International Film Festival next month, the first trailer for Anomymous Animals presents new French horror in a very dark light. (That's a good thing, by the way.) Written and directed by Baptiste Rouveure, the...
SHORTCUT Trailer: A Bus, A Mysterious Creature, 5 Kids
All you need to make a horror thriller is a bus, five kids, and a mysterious creature, according to a new trailer for Shortcut. The title resonates for horror fans, since we all know that taking a shortcut is a...
L'Étrange 2020 Review: ABOUT ENDLESSNESS, Absurdism & Hope in the Time of Apocalypse
The expression "You either you love [insert name here]'s work or you hate it" is a phrase perhaps a bit oversued, but I'm not sure there is a filmmaker to whom it more readily applies than Roy Andersson. His films,...
Venice 2020 Review: APPLES, Greek Weird Wave, With a Spin
Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovassili, and Anna Kalaitzidou star. Directed by Christos Nikou, the film is a full-blooded, absurdist deadpan parable, cut from the finest Greek New Wave cloth.
Review: Criterion Rediscovers THE LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM
Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta's tense German political thriller gets a much-needed high-definition upgrade.
Imagine 2020 Review: SLEEPLESS BEAUTY Keeps You Awake
Lo and behold: despite the limitations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amsterdam-based Imagine Film Festival managed to get itself two theatrical world premieres for its 2020 edition. One of them was Peet Gelderblom's poetic collage film When Forever...
Fantasia 2020: Audience Awards, The People Have Meowed!
In the world of international genre film festivals there is no audience like the group of rascals and miscrients that make up the Fantasia audience. Brimming with unbridled enthusiasm and generosity they welcome each year's lineup with open arms. ...
Fantasia 2020 Review: UNDERGODS, Get Caught Under Its Dystopian Spell
K and Z drive through a desolate wasteland, made up of crumbling infrastructure and empty apartment buildings. Picking up the scraps of humanity there are always stories to tell to fill the time. Ron and Ruth welcome a neighbour into...
POSSESSOR, THE STYLIST, MANIBULES and More at Sitges 2020
Of all the festivals I'm not able to attend this year, Sitges will be the most missed. Not only does it take place in the most beautiful town on the planet, but the festival line-up is always packed with variety,...
Review: GHOST TROPIC, Solidarity in Humanity
Directed by Bas Devos, the drama is quietly enchanting, and delicate in its beauty.
Fantasia 2020 Review: MARYGOROUND Reflects on What it Means to be Independent
There aren't very many films made about women over a certain age (especially in America). That's because financiers tend to be overwhelmingly male, and they want to see movies made about and for them, by people who also look like...
-thumb-200x200-79224.jpg)
MotelX 2020: Lisbon Genre Festival Lineup Includes LA LLORONA, THE RENTAL And HOST
Last month we shared the hopeful news that our friends at MotelX, the kick-ass genre film festival in Lisbon, Portugal, were prepping a live edition of their next festival. With some changes to their format and an extra couple days...
Fantasia 2020 Review: HUNTED, Taunt Horror Thriller Goes For Broke, And Succeeds!
If you go down in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise - Anne Murray Eve has had a rough day trying to meet the demands of her overbearing bosses. To blow off some steam she heads...
Blu-ray Review: THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, the Sickness of Bad Love
There are plenty of disturbing films in the world. One of them is a 1990 release, directed by Paul Schrader (First Reformed, Cat People, American Gigolo, and writer closely tied to Martin Scosese with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last...
Coming Soon on Criterion: THE IRISHMAN Cometh, GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI Restored
Also slated for release in November 2020 from The Criterion Collection: 'Girlfriends,' 'Moonstruck,' 'Essential Fellini.'
Fantaspoa 2020 Review: COMRADE DRAKULICH, Genre Thrills, Nostalgia Frills in Political Satire
Lili Walters, Ervin Nagy and Zsolt Nagy star in director Márk Bodzsár's comic fantasy, featuring vampires appearing behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s.
