Like I Wish (2011), Koreeda Hirokazu’s latest film presents two families. But instead of a divorce being the situation that links these two families, it is the result of a nurse who intentionally switched at birth two sons. The sons’ parents discover this incident early on in the... Read More »
Jia Zhangke’s close attention to the subjective and socioeconomic aspects of architecture, geography, and disappearances of spaces both natural and man-made as a way to structure and elaborate his narratives in an ever transforming China finds its most chilling depiction thus far... Read More »
Nicolas Winding Refn finally broke out onto the international stage with Drive, his ultra-slick stripped-back thriller that won him the best director award here at Cannes in 2011. Returning to the festival with another violent thriller so stripped back its veins are oxidising, Re... Read More »
When the official selection for the 66th Cannes Film Festival was unveiled, along with the rest of the schedule of films constituting other sections, surely among Asian cinema enthusiasts could be heard a sigh. A sigh of, 'That's it?' The small number of Asian titles present at t... Read More »
I know what you’re thinking: “Did the world really need another vampire movie?” The answer is assuredly no. But then, did the world need a vampire movie directed by Jim Jarmusch? Certainly not! Are we better off that we now have one? Actually, yeah, a little. Jarmusch, one of Ame... Read More »
For a four-hour-and-ten-minute film to feel like only two hours, you know that Philippine maverick independent filmmaker Lav Diaz has done something right. To be precise, he has done something extraordinary and cinematic—or put another way, something extraordinarily cinematic—at ... Read More »
One could say that with regards to stories and representations of clandestine migration, one has covered all possible angles, aspects, and themes. What remains is the specificity of experience, not to mention perspective and geography traversed, hidden and marginalised and so mu... Read More »
Regarded by some as the last classically-oriented filmmaker in Hollywood, writer/director James Gray delivers a period piece steeped in nice detail and less appealing schmaltz. The Immigrant is essentially a melodrama triangulated around a practical-minded woman: think the setup ... Read More »
Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem’s film in the Un certain regard section is a Kurdish western if there was one, as a former independence fighter Baran (Korkmaz Arslan) agrees to be sent to the northern Kurdish border town of Qamarian with Iran on one side and Turkey on the ot... Read More »
Caught somewhere between formula and freshness, Nebraska feels like a second-hand movie touched-up by a steady hand. Directing from a script by Bob Nelson, Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways) leaves his melancholic print over a slight, small-scaled story of a father and son. Lik... Read More »
Argentinian filmmaker Lucía Puenzo’s Wakolda, competing in Un Certain Regard, starts out like any other coming-of-age period drama, before taking the darkest of turns into decidedly creepy territory. It’s 1960 and Eva and Enzo are driving their family across Argentina to open a h... Read More »
