AwardsWatch - Reviews

Cannes Review: Gaya Jiji’s glacially paced tale of sexual repression ‘My Favorite Fabric’

Mina Takla May 13, 2018

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″] Gaya Jiji’s directorial debut MY FAVORITE FABRIC is an undercooked, lacking melodrama that takes points for being one of the rare... Read More

Cannes Review: Zhao Tao is a Best Actress Contender in ‘Ash is Purest White’ from Jia Zhang-ke

Mina Takla May 13, 2018

One of the most commercial and straightforward films of his career, Jia Zhang-ke’s ASH IS PUREST WHITE is accessible but not superficial, entertaining but never... Read More

Cannes Review: ‘Border,’ Ali Abbasi’s thrilling supernatural gothic romance

Erik Anderson May 12, 2018

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″] Ali Abbasi creates the grimmest of faerie tales as two outcasts find love in a hopeless place in this wild, wonderful,... Read More

Cannes Review: Mads Mikkelsen burns up the screen in icy ‘Arctic’

Mina Takla May 12, 2018

Survival films can go either way: they can be engaging viewing experiences that expand their scope beyond their basic premise or can be slogs that... Read More

Cannes Review: Pawel Pawlikowski’s bleak and beautiful ‘Cold War’

Mina Takla May 11, 2018

Pawel Pawlikowski’s COLD WAR is one of those films that you can respect but not outright love. Beautifully made but far more slight and bleaker... Read More

Cannes Review: Paul Dano’s assured directorial debut ‘Wildlife’ starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal

Erik Anderson May 10, 2018

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″] The fracturing of an American family in 1960 is at the center of Wildlife (based on the novel by Richard Ford),... Read More

Cannes Review: Kirill Serebrennikov’s arthouse crowdpleaser ‘Leto’

Mina Takla May 10, 2018

Kirill Serebrennikov’s LETO is a tribute to music, dreams of youth and the power – and beauty of ambition. Despite a masterful and at times... Read More

Cannes Review: A.B. Shawky’s gripping and emotional debut ‘Yomeddine’

Mina Takla May 9, 2018

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″] Rarely do debut features play in competition at Cannes. In fact, of the debut features that played in the festival’s most... Read More

Cannes Review: Wanuri Kahiu’s touching if familiar lesbian romance ‘Rafiki’

Erik Anderson May 9, 2018

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″] Kena, short for Makena (played by Samantha Mugatsia) lives in the Slopes district of Nairobi, Kenya with her at-home mom and... Read More

Cannes Review: Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego’s immersive and unforgettable ‘Birds of Passage’

Mina Takla May 9, 2018

In his follow-up to the Oscar-nominated EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT, Colombian director Ciro Guerra teams up with director Cristina Gallego to deliver a remarkable feature about... Read More

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