Cannes Review: Ali Abbasi returns to Cannes with the terrifying Persian noir ‘Holy Spider’ [Grade: B+]
Four years after Border won the top prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand, Iranian-born filmmaker Ali Abbasi sparked a lively debate with his new... Read More
Savina Petkova
Cannes Review: In Ruben Östlund’s zany ‘Triangle of Sadness,’ yachts rock (and roll) as the allure of luxury exposes the underbelly of a classless utopia [Grade: A]
A big part of what makes a good satire vital, is the pledge of taking things seriously. Swedish director Ruben Östlund certainly lives by this... Read More
Cannes Review: Absences haunt Mia Hansen-Løve’s raw, but deeply humanistic ‘One Fine Morning’ [Grade: A]
Halfway through Mia Hansen-Løve’s eighth feature, one character pokes at another referring to life and its “complex things you wouldn’t understand.” One way or another,... Read More
Berlinale 2022 review: Charlotte Gainsbourg shines in ‘The Passengers of the Night’ from Mikhaël Hers [Grade B-]
The Passengers of the Night opens with a title card announcing the date: May 10th, 1981. In recent French history, that day marks the election... Read More
Berlinale 2022 review: Vincent Lindon and Juliette Binoche are bursting with love-drenched lust in Claire Denis’ love triangle drama ‘Fire’ (aka ‘Both Sides of the Blade’) [Grade A]
A chance encounter, a glance in the right direction while flicking your hair, and it cannot be unseen: it is your former lover who you... Read More
Berlinale 2022 review: In ‘Taurus’, Machine Gun Kelly exorcizes his stardom [Grade B+]
Almost a decade after Memphis (2013) depicted the spiritual journey of musician Willis Earl Beal, filmmaker Tim Sutton returns to the sombre world of music... Read More
Berlinale 2022 review: François Ozon’s ‘Peter von Kant’ plays out as an ambitious but flat homage to Fassbinder [Grade C-]
It’s been 50 years since Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant premiered at Berlinale and to mark this anniversary, prolific French... Read More
Venice Review: David Gordon Green expands the limits of trauma with ‘Halloween Kills’ [Grade: B]
‘Evil dies tonight’, or tomorrow – that’s the motto uttered at some point by every single character in Halloween Kills, David Gordon Green’s follow-up to... Read More
Venice Review: Audrey Diwan’s abortion drama ‘Happening (L’Événement)’ bares all but leaves its lead an empty vessel [Grade C-]
The initial idea for Audrey Diwan’s Happening (L’Événement) came from a famous French autobiographical novel, written by Annie Ernaux in 2000 about her own illegal... Read More
Venice Review: Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg seethe in the Mexican heat of Michel Franco’s ‘Sundown’ [Grade: B]
Michel Franco returns to the Lido just one year after his New Order won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, premiering his latest which also... Read More
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Director Watch Podcast Ep. 94 – ‘Mikey and Nicky’ (Elaine May, 1974)