AwardsWatch - Film Reviews

Venice Review: Ana Lily Amirpour’s ‘Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon’ is a vibrantly stylish, yet uneven ride [Grade C+]

Ben Rolph September 6, 2021

Ana Lily Amirpour’s latest film, after a five-year absence due to her venturing into the world of TV, will take audiences on a stylish, hipster... Read More

Venice Review: Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg seethe in the Mexican heat of Michel Franco’s ‘Sundown’ [Grade: B]

Savina Petkova September 5, 2021

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

Venice Review: ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ is a worthy retread with staggering performances from Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain [Grade: B+]

Adam Solomons September 4, 2021

It’s not common for me to advise readers to watch a 294-minute limited series in one go. But Scenes from a Marriage, HBO’s new Ingmar... Read More

Venice review: ‘True Things’ cements Harry Wootliff as the master of new British drama [Grade: A-]

Savina Petkova September 4, 2021

Three years after premiering her BAFTA-nominated debut feature, Only You, British filmmaker Harry Wootliff returns to the festival circuit with True Things, a mature and... Read More

Venice review: Isabelle Huppert rivets in this razor-sharp political drama, ‘Promises (Les promesses)’ [Grade B+]

Ben Rolph September 3, 2021

Isabelle Huppert battles to keep her place in the mayoral office in Thomas Kruithof’s Les Promesses, also known by its English title Promises. It’s a... Read More

Venice Review: With ‘The Lost Daughter,’ Maggie Gyllenhaal exposes mother-daughter relations in their vile, discomforting essence [Grade: B]

Savina Petkova September 3, 2021

Leda, a middle-aged comp-lit professor, arrives at a lavish Greek island accompanied solely by her books. Played by an overwrought Olivia Colman, she frets and... Read More

Venice review: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ is a gripping and visually arresting opener to an exciting universe [Grade: A]

Adam Solomons September 3, 2021

The two most important lines in Dune come at the very beginning and the very end. First, when Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) tells princeling son... Read More

Venice review: Kristen Stewart delivers a career-best performance in a fitting and fantastic look at an accidental revolutionary in ‘Spencer’ [Grade: A]

Adam Solomons September 3, 2021

A spiky icon and a gentle iconoclast, Diana Spencer occupies a place in the public consciousness of Britain and the rest of the world which... Read More

Venice Review: ‘The Hand of God’ is Paolo Sorrentino’s sublime masterpiece [Grade: A]

Roberto Ruggio September 2, 2021

“Thank you to my sources of inspiration: Federico Fellini, Talking Heads, Martin Scorsese and Diego Armando Maradona.” When Paolo Sorrentino went on stage to accept... Read More