-
The five greatest film villains of all time
There’s a lot that goes into making a movie highly successful, but what exactly is it that makes a film iconic and timeless? Some will argue it’s the dialogue and screenplay; others will say that a strong cast and plot go a long way to mark a strong performance; but in reality, we all love…
-
Film Review: Alita: Battle Angel
★★★★☆ A long-time James Cameron project, the king of the world handed over the reins of Alita: Battle Angel to Austin-based genre specialist Robert Rodriguez, while staying on as producer and co-screenwriter. The choice of director makes absolute sense, as both are positively evangelical about digital filmmaking and effects-driven storytelling. Based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga…
-
Film Review: Green Book
★★★☆☆ Exploring the politics of race and class in 1960s America, Green Book attempts to shine a light on the civil rights era through an inspirational buddy drama. It works for the most part, but at best it’s a somewhat sentimental and nostalgic look back on American history, and at worst it’s racism seen through…
-
Film Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
★★★★★ In her excellent adaptation of Lee Israel’s literary fraudster memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me?, director Marielle Heller takes viewers on a hilarious tour of New York’s memorabilia dealers, blending a mixture of heist comedy with a sensitive character study of Israel herself: “bitter as a root”, to use her own expression, but not…
-
Film Review: Bergman: A Year in a Life
★★★★☆ After the recent centenary of Ingmar Bergman and Criterion Collection’s release of a mammoth thirty-nine film Blu-ray box set, the appeal of Bergman as a definitive auteur feels reborn in this moment. Affirming audiences with piercing observations on human nature, Jane Magnusson’s follows up Trespassing Bergman with Bergman: A Year in a Life. Focusing specifically on…
-
Film Review: Vice
★★★★☆ When historians look back at the rise of populism and anti-establishment feeling in the early years of the 21st century, they will almost certainly ascribe it to two central events. The first is the Iraq War, and the loss of faith it engendered in the West’s moral standing and its basic competence. The second…
-
Film Review: On Her Shoulders
★★★★★ The subject of Alexandria Bombach’s On Her Shoulders is an extraordinary woman, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, and her tireless campaign for justice for the Yazidi people. Bombach demonstrates how Murad’s selfless devotion to the cause win hearts and minds and leads her to become the United Nation’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity…
-
Film Review: Destroyer
★★★☆☆ In Karyn Kusama’s LA-based noir Destroyer, Nicole Kidman stars – and startles – as desiccated detective Erin Bell, revived by the possibility of vengeance against a past foe encountered while undercover seventeen years previously. Despite committed performances and an appealingly pulpy voyage through LA’s underbelly, the plot clings to the familiar beats of the…
-
DVD Review: Orphée
★★★★★ The second film in Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy, Orphée’s textural and thematic richness is matched only by its enduring technical innovation. A loose adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus, Cocteau’s masterpiece uses classical mythic structure and archetypes to explore post-war French rehabilitation and crisis. In this retelling of the myth, the musician Orpheus becomes…
-
Criterion Review: Panique
★★★★★ In post-war Paris, an elderly woman is murdered apparently without motive. As the locals puzzle over the identity of the culprit, bafflement soon turns to panic as their unfounded suspicions turn to the eccentric Jewish man, Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), who lives in an apartment near the scene of the crime. An exemplary film…
VENICE 2026