Alex Russell’s debut feature, Lurker, is a mask-off exploration of rabid stan culture taken to extremes. When ascendant pop star Oliver (Archie Madekwe) walks into…
In all the consternation over the disappearance of the theatrical comedy, a trend hastened by post-Covid viewing habits that find comedies being largely relegated to…
“Trauma horror,” or “grief horror,” has become so ubiquitous that the subgenre has infiltrated even the most quotidian commercial horror films; it seems that the…
“Welcome to the new West,” in which teenage rodeo riders with undercuts listen to cloud rap and horses are sold on TikTok. In East of…
Almost as if it were made in response to John Krasinski’s IF, a saccharine fantasy about a motherless young girl who through magical contortions was able…
The story of Souleymane (Abou Sangare), a Guinean immigrant fighting for the right to work legally in France, has lately been told millions of times,…
“Arkhitekton” in Greek — “master builder” in English. The world that we humans have created around us is a world of stone; cold, stoic, though…
Dogs occupy a unique, almost sacred, space in our lives. They are not technically human, yet they embody qualities — loyalty, affection, intelligence — that…
You might not assume it, but the handsome, boyish, 19-year-old Leonardo (Manfredi Marini) at the center of Giovanni Tortorici’s refreshingly pulse-tapping debut, Diciannove, doesn’t feel…
Sometimes, all it takes is a platform. The rubble of an abandoned village can be a platform for a flag, the flag a symbol of…
Back in the winter, the film Companion used the premise of a young “couple” taking their first trip together to a secluded house in the countryside as…
Pilgrims, Laurynas Bareiša’s previous feature, was an accomplished debut that explored a man’s inability to move past the senseless killing of his brother. It showed…
Nothing elicits an emotional response quite like a shock. Things hit harder when you haven’t had time to prepare for them — the funniest jokes,…
It’s rather rare for debut features to world premiere in Competition at Cannes. The second-tier lineup, Un Certain Regard, is the festival’s typical launchpad for…
In his debut narrative feature, To a Land Unknown, Danish-Palestinian director and documentarian Mahdi Fleifel takes inspiration from New Hollywood films centering men on the…
30 minutes into Jem Cohen’s new film Little, Big, and Far, the viewer watches a mostly vacant mall parking lot slowly descend into darkness. For…
Cynical perhaps, but it feels safe to assume in 2025 that a majority of Americans do not know that Rhodesia was a country, let alone…
When David Lynch tragically passed away earlier this year, he left behind an unassailable body of work, which has been often imitated yet seldom replicated.…
Eva Victor wants you to know that the cat is okay. “I feel like we should have put out a PSA!” they tell me at…