Cannes Review: Ethan Coen’s formulaic ‘Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind’ doc plays more like a jukebox on repeat than an insightful look of one of rock ‘n roll’s most controversial icons [Grade: C-]
Last year, Joel Cohen graced us with his mesmerizing adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth to world-wide acclaim. Ethan Coen, however, opted for a... Read More
Savina Petkova
Cannes Review: With ‘Crimes of the Future’, horror-master David Cronenberg entices your inhumanly appetite and gets under your skin [Grade: B]
With a star-studded cast and a sexy marketing campaign to precede it, Crimes of the Future promises an electrifying affair to be beholden, enjoyed, and... Read More
Cannes Review: ‘Corsage’ doesn’t reinvent the genre but Vicky Krieps leads Marie Kreutzer’s Austrian period drama with fragility and forte [Grade: B+]
For her fifth feature, Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer turns to the history books, and more specifically, to a female figure of the 19th century whose... Read More
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
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
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 153: ‘Memento’ (Christopher Nolan, 2001) 
2026 San Francisco International Film Festival Reviews: ‘The World of Love,’ ‘A Sad and Beautiful World,’ ‘Nuisance Bear,’ ‘One in a Million’ (SFFILM) 
2027 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (May) 
Interview: Boots Riley on Collecting an Eclectic Cast and How ‘I Love Boosters’ is Like Richard Scarry’s ‘Busy, Busy Town’