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
Film Reviews
Venice Review: ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ is a worthy retread with staggering performances from Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain [Grade: B+]
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-]
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+]
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]
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]
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]
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]
“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
Venice Review: With ‘The Power of the Dog,’ Jane Campion and her cast do justice to a literary masterpiece
“Deliver my soul from the sword. My love from the power of the dog” (Psalms, 22:20, David’s address to God to free him from his... Read More
Venice Review: ‘Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)’ is a powerful portrayal of mothers in Almodóvar’s most political film
No matter how hard we try to escape it, we’re all children of history. It defines the life of a country and, by consequence, that... Read More
2024 Camerimage Film Festival: Danish Oscar Entry ‘The Girl With the Needle’ Wins Golden Frog 
Interview: ‘Gladiator II’ Cinematographer John Mathieson on Reuniting with Ridley Scott and Continuing the Legacy and Lore 
Interview: Alan Menken and Glenn Slater on Creating the Songs and Score for ‘Spellbound’ and the “Perfectly” Cast Rachel Zegler 
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR (November)