After a contentious fall-festival run where people either had to declare Aggro Dr1ft the future of cinema or an abject embarrassment––I propose it’s sufficient to think “this looks neat” and find yourself chortling across 80 fleet-enough minutes––Korine’s Edglrd is migrating from initial public venues (L.A. strip clubs) to a proper theatrical release: 17 coast-to-coast theaters between May 10 and 16. With that set, there’s a new trailer that gives greater sense of the visual onslaught, narrative scope, and humor.
Safe to say if this amuses, you’ll get something from the film at large. As Rory O’Connor said from his review out of Venice, “Korine has named this new aesthetic ‘gamecore,’ which seems pretty apt. Even the most casual player will recognize the rhythms and visual cues here: the actors move and converse like NPCs, repeating phrases and gestures, and moving around with all the personality of an avatar in Second Life.
Safe to say if this amuses, you’ll get something from the film at large. As Rory O’Connor said from his review out of Venice, “Korine has named this new aesthetic ‘gamecore,’ which seems pretty apt. Even the most casual player will recognize the rhythms and visual cues here: the actors move and converse like NPCs, repeating phrases and gestures, and moving around with all the personality of an avatar in Second Life.
- 5/7/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
A month so staggering in quality new releases that a new Mad Max film from George Miller barely cracked the top five, May kicks off the summer movie season with a bang. From the best American film of the year to a long-awaited U.S. release from the director who topped last month’s list, and much more, check out my picks of the best movies arriving this month below.
17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)
Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...
17. Aggro DR1FT (Harmony Korine; May 10-16 in theaters)
Though a film I almost actively hated in the moment, reflecting back on Harmony Korine’s Aggro DR1FT, it’s certainly a nightmare that has stayed with me. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Is it possible to leave your enfance without losing your terrible? The one-and-only Harmony Korine, now 50 years young, returns with Aggro Dr1ft, a premiere out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival this week and, by my count, the only...
- 4/30/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Is Aggro Dr1ft the future of cinema? Not in any quantifiable, justifiable sense. Does it have anything to say? I admire Harmony Korine using infrared images and abstract editing to convey anxieties about growing older, being a married man, and serving as father to two children in this violent world. Did I laugh at the angel-winged, sword-wielding, gravel-voiced bad guy saying, “Dance bitches. Dance bitches. Dance bitch. Dance bitches”? Well…
After a contentious fall-festival run where people either had to declare Aggro Dr1ft either pisses on the graves of Eadweard Muybridge and Orson Welles or is an embarrassment for which Korine should be ashamed––I propose it’s sufficient to think “this looks neat” and find yourself chortling across 80 fleet-enough minutes––Korine’s Edglrd is migrating from initial public venues (L.A. strip clubs) to a proper theatrical release: 17 coast-to-coast theaters between May 10 and 16.
Release dates are below; we...
After a contentious fall-festival run where people either had to declare Aggro Dr1ft either pisses on the graves of Eadweard Muybridge and Orson Welles or is an embarrassment for which Korine should be ashamed––I propose it’s sufficient to think “this looks neat” and find yourself chortling across 80 fleet-enough minutes––Korine’s Edglrd is migrating from initial public venues (L.A. strip clubs) to a proper theatrical release: 17 coast-to-coast theaters between May 10 and 16.
Release dates are below; we...
- 4/9/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
If the only April release was my top pick of the month it would be one of the finest lineups of the years, but thankfully there’s more to recommend. Featuring films about cinephilic obsession, subversive superhero tales, and what is sure to be at least one divisive big-screen near-future adventure, check out the list of must-sees below.
12 & 11. Kim’s Video (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin; April 5) and I Like Movies (Chandler Levack; April 8)
Anyone interested in physical media will appreciate a pair of films this month. Kim’s Video explores the strange story of the East Village establishment that housed around 55,000 DVDs while I Like Movies is a Canadian coming-of-age tale about a video store clerk who has bigger dreams in life, and is chockfull of cinephile-related humor that rang quite a familiar bell for this writer. John Fink said in his review of the former, “A sweeping documentary...
12 & 11. Kim’s Video (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin; April 5) and I Like Movies (Chandler Levack; April 8)
Anyone interested in physical media will appreciate a pair of films this month. Kim’s Video explores the strange story of the East Village establishment that housed around 55,000 DVDs while I Like Movies is a Canadian coming-of-age tale about a video store clerk who has bigger dreams in life, and is chockfull of cinephile-related humor that rang quite a familiar bell for this writer. John Fink said in his review of the former, “A sweeping documentary...
- 4/2/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the best surprises in cinema this past year was the news that Ryusuke Hamaguchi, just two years after his perfect one-two punch of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car, had secretly shot and completed another film that was to premiere at the Venice Film Festival. After picking up the Grand Jury Prize there, the serene and expertly scripted Evil Does Not Exist will now roll out to kick off the summer movie season courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films. Ahead of the U.S. release, the new trailer and poster have arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “A quiet, funny, confounding mystery, Evil plays out amongst the forests and streams of a remote village close to Tokyo. Tensions are raised when two representatives for the glamping company, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), arrive to talk things over. The locals, in particular a man named Takumi,...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “A quiet, funny, confounding mystery, Evil plays out amongst the forests and streams of a remote village close to Tokyo. Tensions are raised when two representatives for the glamping company, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), arrive to talk things over. The locals, in particular a man named Takumi,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A breakout from last year’s Directors’ Fortnight (where it premiered alongside The Sweet East), Joanna Arnow’s (deep breath) The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed will open on April 26 from Magnolia Pictures, ahead of which is a first trailer.
Rory O’Connor was impressed upon the film’s Cannes premiere: “Developed from a semi-autobiographical screenplay, Passed emits a more endearing, much funnier vulnerability: the kind of jokes that seemed a bit too knowing and cynical in her earlier work now land with delightful fatalism. Arnow stars as Ann, the thirty-something woman in the kind of soulless, mid-level corporate job where a boomer boss calls a meeting to tell you to get on Spotify. Her world is a mosaic of micro-observations: an instant curry that looks like dog food, squeezed from its sachet to the very last drop; the self-satisfied chuckle of someone listening to a podcast...
Rory O’Connor was impressed upon the film’s Cannes premiere: “Developed from a semi-autobiographical screenplay, Passed emits a more endearing, much funnier vulnerability: the kind of jokes that seemed a bit too knowing and cynical in her earlier work now land with delightful fatalism. Arnow stars as Ann, the thirty-something woman in the kind of soulless, mid-level corporate job where a boomer boss calls a meeting to tell you to get on Spotify. Her world is a mosaic of micro-observations: an instant curry that looks like dog food, squeezed from its sachet to the very last drop; the self-satisfied chuckle of someone listening to a podcast...
- 3/12/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The spice must flow, and take over most theaters. While Denis Villeneuve’s gargantuan-sized blockbuster will suck up much of the oxygen when it comes to discussions around March’s releases, there’s plenty more to uncover. From adventurous festival favorites to micro-sized productions to a would-be blockbuster relegated to streaming, here are my picks for what to see next month.
15. Road House (Doug Liman; March 21)
While his recent output hasn’t touched the entertainment value of Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, or Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman seems quite confident in the crowdpleaser appeal of his Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake. While he won’t be getting the theatrical release he believes he deserves, those at SXSW will at least be able to experience it in a crowd before it lands on Prime Video soon after.
14. Yuni (Kamila Andini; March 22)
One of our favorite undistributed films...
15. Road House (Doug Liman; March 21)
While his recent output hasn’t touched the entertainment value of Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, or Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman seems quite confident in the crowdpleaser appeal of his Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake. While he won’t be getting the theatrical release he believes he deserves, those at SXSW will at least be able to experience it in a crowd before it lands on Prime Video soon after.
14. Yuni (Kamila Andini; March 22)
One of our favorite undistributed films...
- 2/28/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
For the second in a row, the Berlinale jury has awarded the top prize of Golden Bear to a documentary. Before Mati Diop’s Dahomey Is a Fulminating Story of Restitution and Liberation”>Dahomey this year, Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant picked up the prize and now Kino Lorber will release the film in theaters next month. The documentary, set for a March 15 release, centers on a psychiatric care center that sits on the river Seine and provides a port for inner storms. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, this affecting, enlightening documentary from nonfiction master Nicolas Philibert invites viewers to come aboard the Adamant and witness the transformational power of art and community. The Adamant is a one-of-a-kind place: a floating refuge on the Seine River in the heart of...
Here’s the synopsis: “Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, this affecting, enlightening documentary from nonfiction master Nicolas Philibert invites viewers to come aboard the Adamant and witness the transformational power of art and community. The Adamant is a one-of-a-kind place: a floating refuge on the Seine River in the heart of...
- 2/27/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Reviewing No Other Land out of Berlinale, Rory O’Connor described the “disorienting and dispiriting landscape” into which it was premiering. Quite an understatement to say the city of Berlin and its major-market festival fumbled through any response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, against which many filmmakers who’ve attended the festival in years past have spoken out. As Rory summarizes:
“The film premiered this week at the Berlinale, a festival mired in recent controversies in a country that is failing to acknowledge the limits of its own guilt. In the month leading up to the festival, several filmmakers pulled their work from the selection to protest the lack of Palestinian solidarity. Workers of the festival then released an open letter calling for the festival’s organizers to demand a ceasefire. In the weeks leading up, the city’s cultural minister, Joe Chialo, had to backtrack on a proposed ‘anti-discrimination...
“The film premiered this week at the Berlinale, a festival mired in recent controversies in a country that is failing to acknowledge the limits of its own guilt. In the month leading up to the festival, several filmmakers pulled their work from the selection to protest the lack of Palestinian solidarity. Workers of the festival then released an open letter calling for the festival’s organizers to demand a ceasefire. In the weeks leading up, the city’s cultural minister, Joe Chialo, had to backtrack on a proposed ‘anti-discrimination...
- 2/26/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
If you haven’t been following him on Twitter, David Krumholtz has been one of the very few reasons to stay up to date on the happenings of that godforsaken site, sharing gloriously told tales of his time in Hollywood. The Oppenheimer actor’s next feature, Bob Byington’s comedy Lousy Carter, will now arrive this March, which finds him leading an ensemble also including Martin Starr, Olivia Thirlby, Jocelyn DeBoer, Luxy Banner, and Stephen Root. Ahead of the March 29 release, Magnolia Pictures have now released the first trailer and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “In Lousy Carter, David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer) stars as a ne’er-do-well literature professor adrift on a soulless college campus who learns he only has six months to live. With the clock ticking, will he change his ways? Probably not. Auteur writer/director Bob Byington’s slyly subversive comedy also features comedy all-stars Martin Starr, Olivia Thirlby,...
Here’s the synopsis: “In Lousy Carter, David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer) stars as a ne’er-do-well literature professor adrift on a soulless college campus who learns he only has six months to live. With the clock ticking, will he change his ways? Probably not. Auteur writer/director Bob Byington’s slyly subversive comedy also features comedy all-stars Martin Starr, Olivia Thirlby,...
- 2/20/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
While the Animorphs franchise may not be what it was in its late 1990s heyday, French director Thomas Cailley has your fix with his new thriller The Animal Kingdom. The Cannes premiere, which just racked up a whopping 12 César Awards nominations, imagines a world of mutations in human genetics that cause people to transform into hybrid creatures. Starring Romain Duris, Paul Kircher, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, Magnet Releasing will now debut the film in the U.S. starting at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at the end of the month, followed by a March 15 theatrical and digital release. Ahead of the bow, they’ve released a new trailer.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “In The Animal Kingdom, an Un Certain Regard-selected science-fiction romp from France, human-animal mutations are the new norm. Director Thomas Cailley begins things in media res with a familiar disaster-movie scene: François (Romain Duris) and Émile (Paul Kircher)––father and son,...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “In The Animal Kingdom, an Un Certain Regard-selected science-fiction romp from France, human-animal mutations are the new norm. Director Thomas Cailley begins things in media res with a familiar disaster-movie scene: François (Romain Duris) and Émile (Paul Kircher)––father and son,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Across her five previous features, Austrian director Jessica Hausner has developed a distinctly unique tone and now she’s back with her sixth outing, Club Zero. Led by Mia Wasikowska, the dark satire follows a nutrition teacher at an elite school whose relationship with five students takes a dangerous turn. Following a Cannes premiere last year, Film Movement picked it up for a U.S. release on March 15 in theaters and now the first trailer and poster have landed.
Here’s the synopsis: “At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress,...
Here’s the synopsis: “At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress,...
- 2/7/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny perhaps garnered more press out of Cannes Film Festival last year, it was another selection involving archaeologists and tomb raiders that will have a longer shelf life. Alice Rohrwacher’s latest feature La Chimera, starring Josh O’Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Carol Duarte, and Vincenzo Nemolato, has now finally been set for a March 29, 2024 release from Neon following a 2023 awards-qualifying run and now the new trailer and poster have arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the...
Here’s the synopsis: “Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Is Aggro Dr1ft the future of cinema? Not in any quantifiable, justifiable sense. Does it have anything to say? I admire Harmony Korine using infrared images and abstract editing to convey anxieties about growing older, being a married man, and acting as father to two children in a violent world. Did I laugh at the angel-winged, sword-wielding, gravel-voiced bad guy saying, “Dance bitches. Dance bitches. Dance bitch. Dance bitches”? Well…
After a contentious run on the fall-festival circuit, where people either had to declare Aggro Dr1ft was putting a stake in cinema’s heart by righteously pissing on the graves of Eadweard Muybridge and Orson Welles or an embarrassment for which Korine should be ashamed––I propose it’s sufficient to think “this looks kind of neat” and occasionally laugh across 80 fleet-enough minutes––Korine’s Edglrd is beginning their roll-out of the film at the Los Angeles strip club Crazy Girls...
After a contentious run on the fall-festival circuit, where people either had to declare Aggro Dr1ft was putting a stake in cinema’s heart by righteously pissing on the graves of Eadweard Muybridge and Orson Welles or an embarrassment for which Korine should be ashamed––I propose it’s sufficient to think “this looks kind of neat” and occasionally laugh across 80 fleet-enough minutes––Korine’s Edglrd is beginning their roll-out of the film at the Los Angeles strip club Crazy Girls...
- 1/25/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
One of the most gorgeous, tranquil movie-going experiences of the year will surely be Bas Devos’ Berlinale winner and NYFF and TIFF selection Here. Picked up by Cinema Guild for a theatrical release beginning on February 9 at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first poster, designed by Brian Hung.
Here’s the synopsis: “Here follows Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels who is about to return home to visit his mother, and perhaps stay for good. Using the leftovers from his fridge, he cooks up a big pot of soup and begins handing it out as farewell gifts to friends and family. But while waiting for his car to be fixed, he meets Shuxiu, a Belgian-Chinese woman preparing a doctorate on mosses. Her attention to the near-invisible stops him in his tracks. On the heels of Ghost Tropic (2019), Bas Devos offers another Brussels city symphony.
Here’s the synopsis: “Here follows Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels who is about to return home to visit his mother, and perhaps stay for good. Using the leftovers from his fridge, he cooks up a big pot of soup and begins handing it out as farewell gifts to friends and family. But while waiting for his car to be fixed, he meets Shuxiu, a Belgian-Chinese woman preparing a doctorate on mosses. Her attention to the near-invisible stops him in his tracks. On the heels of Ghost Tropic (2019), Bas Devos offers another Brussels city symphony.
- 1/24/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the most gorgeous, tranquil movie-going experiences of the year will surely be Bas Devos’ Berlinale winner and NYFF and TIFF selection Here. Picked up by Cinema Guild for a theatrical release beginning on February 9 at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center, they’ve now released the first trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “Here follows Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels who is about to return home to visit his mother, and perhaps stay for good. Using the leftovers from his fridge, he cooks up a big pot of soup and begins handing it out as farewell gifts to friends and family. But while waiting for his car to be fixed, he meets Shuxiu, a Belgian-Chinese woman preparing a doctorate on mosses. Her attention to the near-invisible stops him in his tracks. On the heels of Ghost Tropic (2019), Bas Devos offers another Brussels city symphony. With a...
Here’s the synopsis: “Here follows Stefan, a Romanian construction worker living in Brussels who is about to return home to visit his mother, and perhaps stay for good. Using the leftovers from his fridge, he cooks up a big pot of soup and begins handing it out as farewell gifts to friends and family. But while waiting for his car to be fixed, he meets Shuxiu, a Belgian-Chinese woman preparing a doctorate on mosses. Her attention to the near-invisible stops him in his tracks. On the heels of Ghost Tropic (2019), Bas Devos offers another Brussels city symphony. With a...
- 1/17/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Happy New Year! As we continue to wrap up 2023 in cinema, we’re also looking toward what awaits in 2024. Ahead of more expansive 2024 previews, we’re taking an in-depth look at this first month of the year. We should also note that a batch of December favorites will continue to expand, including All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, The Sweet East, and American Fiction.
10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam; Jan. 26)
A selection from Cannes, NYFF, and TIFF, Rosine Mbakam’s narrative feature debut will begin its U.S. run at Anthology Film Archives this month. Edward Frumkin said in his NYFF review, “Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam uses familiar spaces as microcosms of society. After capturing her subjects in one setting, such as a mall in Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and the protagonist’s home in Delphine’s Prayers (2021), her narrative-feature debut Mambar Pierrette foregrounds the eponymous tailor and love for...
10. Mambar Pierrette (Rosine Mbakam; Jan. 26)
A selection from Cannes, NYFF, and TIFF, Rosine Mbakam’s narrative feature debut will begin its U.S. run at Anthology Film Archives this month. Edward Frumkin said in his NYFF review, “Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam uses familiar spaces as microcosms of society. After capturing her subjects in one setting, such as a mall in Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) and the protagonist’s home in Delphine’s Prayers (2021), her narrative-feature debut Mambar Pierrette foregrounds the eponymous tailor and love for...
- 1/2/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ten years after Jonathan Glazer debuted Under the Skin, he’s now reteamed with A24 for the chilling Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. Based on Martin Amis’s Auschwitz-set novel, the film features Toni Erdmann star Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel as we witness their daily activities outside the concentration camp. Shot by Łukasz Żal with Mica Levi reuniting to score, A24 has now unveiled the second trailer and new poster ahead of a December 15 release.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Ten years after Under the Skin, the brilliant, elusive Johnathan Glazer returns with one of the most haunting films of this or any year. It’s adapted from Martin Amis’ acidic 2014 novel, though to call this an adaptation would be like saying a thunderstorm adapts the wind. Just as he did with Under the Skin, Glazer takes but a sliver of the source text and lets...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Ten years after Under the Skin, the brilliant, elusive Johnathan Glazer returns with one of the most haunting films of this or any year. It’s adapted from Martin Amis’ acidic 2014 novel, though to call this an adaptation would be like saying a thunderstorm adapts the wind. Just as he did with Under the Skin, Glazer takes but a sliver of the source text and lets...
- 12/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Returning to Cannes with his first film in five years, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses earned a Best Actress prize for Merve Dizdar. The film follows the young art teacher Samet “who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in. Will his encounter with Nuray, herself a teacher, help him overcome his angst?” After this month’s Oscar-qualifying run, Janus-Sideshow will begin unrolling About Dry Grasses on February 23, 2024, ahead of which there’s a U.S. trailer.
Rory O’Connor was impressed with the film at Cannes, writing, “It’s a hallmark of Ceylan’s artistry that those exchanges are as strongly staged as they are dramatic. Here as in another of the director’s Anatolia-set dramas,...
Rory O’Connor was impressed with the film at Cannes, writing, “It’s a hallmark of Ceylan’s artistry that those exchanges are as strongly staged as they are dramatic. Here as in another of the director’s Anatolia-set dramas,...
- 11/28/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
One of our festival highlights earlier this year, Lila Avilés’ Tótem is now preparing for a U.S. release to kick off 2024 following an awards-qualifying. Mexico’s Oscar entry marks the director’s follow-up to The Chambermaid and follows a family over the course of a single, meaningful day, mainly from the perspective of 7-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes), as her mother (Montserrat Marañón) and extended relatives prepare for the birthday party of the girl’s father (Mateo Garcia). Ahead of a January 26, 2024 release for the Berlinale and Nd/Nf selection from Sideshow and Janus Films, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The characters of Tótem don’t just appear onscreen; they take it over. From the top there’s the patriarch Roberto (Alberto Amador), who speaks using an electrolarynx and, when not dryly cajoling his flock, enjoys pruning a handsome Bonsai. There...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The characters of Tótem don’t just appear onscreen; they take it over. From the top there’s the patriarch Roberto (Alberto Amador), who speaks using an electrolarynx and, when not dryly cajoling his flock, enjoys pruning a handsome Bonsai. There...
- 11/14/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Buzz around Sean Price Williams’ feature-directing debut The Sweet East has been high since its debut at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Working from a script by critic Nick Pinkerton, the aesthetic-defining Dp’s road trip finds Talia Ryder meeting a rogue’s gallery––Jacob Elordi, Simon Rex, Ayo Edebri, Jeremy O. Harris, and Andy Milonakis among them––and word’s consistently pegged it as one of 2023’s funniest. With Utopia releasing The Sweet East on December 1, there’s a trailer.
Rory O’Connor was taken with the film at Cannes, saying “Working from a script co-written with the influential critic Nick Pinkerton, Sean Price Williams’ punky directorial debut boasts both the cinematographer’s signature aesthetic and Pinkerton’s idiosyncratic, roguish worldview. Premiering this week in Directors’ Fortnight, The Sweet East––seemingly taking cues from John Waters––is cinema at its most playfully facetious, infectiously puerile, and flagrantly transgressive, and an early highlight...
Rory O’Connor was taken with the film at Cannes, saying “Working from a script co-written with the influential critic Nick Pinkerton, Sean Price Williams’ punky directorial debut boasts both the cinematographer’s signature aesthetic and Pinkerton’s idiosyncratic, roguish worldview. Premiering this week in Directors’ Fortnight, The Sweet East––seemingly taking cues from John Waters––is cinema at its most playfully facetious, infectiously puerile, and flagrantly transgressive, and an early highlight...
- 11/2/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
As we enter the final months of the year, we’ll soon be unveiling our favorite cinema in a variety of distinctions and categories, leading up to our best films of the year list. In the meantime, it’s time to play catch up. Along with our updated lists of the best films playing in theaters and weekly streaming picks, we’re taking a look at the offerings of November: historical epics, riveting documentaries, impressive debuts, and the return of one of the most imaginative filmmakers to ever contribute to the craft.
15. Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli; Nov. 10 limited)
In a rare feat, Kristoffer Borgli premiered his second U.S. release of the year after the jet-black Norwegian comedy Sick of Myself. Teaming him with Nicolas Cage, the Ari Aster-produced Dream Scenario premiered at TIFF and I found at least the first half to be quite an entertaining, sharp Kaufman-esque psychological character study.
15. Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli; Nov. 10 limited)
In a rare feat, Kristoffer Borgli premiered his second U.S. release of the year after the jet-black Norwegian comedy Sick of Myself. Teaming him with Nicolas Cage, the Ari Aster-produced Dream Scenario premiered at TIFF and I found at least the first half to be quite an entertaining, sharp Kaufman-esque psychological character study.
- 11/1/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
2023’s second Hong Sangsoo release (third if The Novelist’s Film came your way a bit late) is In Water, his shortest-ever feature at 61 minutes and wildest formal gambit: the entire film is out-of-focus, hardly aswim with plot to begin with. A unique sell that Cinema Guild will heroically make by pairing In Water with Pedro Costa’s fantastic short The Daughters of Fire for a “Fire+Water” double-bill that begins its run at Metrograph on December 1. With exactly one month between now and then, there is a trailer.
As Rory O’Connor said in his review out of Berlin, “Narratively it’s nothing if not succinct, and whatever In Water lacks for plot it more than makes up for in mood and ideas, as well as a kind of raw artistic honesty––regarding his work, yes, but also his sense of mortality. All of which only makes you wonder: might...
As Rory O’Connor said in his review out of Berlin, “Narratively it’s nothing if not succinct, and whatever In Water lacks for plot it more than makes up for in mood and ideas, as well as a kind of raw artistic honesty––regarding his work, yes, but also his sense of mortality. All of which only makes you wonder: might...
- 11/1/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Premiering earlier this year at Berlinale, John Trengove’s The Wound follow-up Manodrome sets Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody in a Fight Club-esque tale following a man wrestling with his own demons who gets welcomed into a mysterious family of men. Ahead of a November release from Lionsgate, the first trailer has now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “In Manodrome, cinema’s enduring love for frustrated male loners is brought, kicking and screaming, into the cold light of the present day. Set in an unnamed, crumbling city in the Northeast, it stars an against-type Jesse Eisenberg as a jacked-up, emotionally stunted gym bro who joins a cult of voluntarily and involuntarily celibate men. The director is John Trengrove, whose previous feature The Wound used a very real Xhosa rite of passage as a way to examine the ever-knotted rituals of male bonding. The subcultures in Manodrome...
Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “In Manodrome, cinema’s enduring love for frustrated male loners is brought, kicking and screaming, into the cold light of the present day. Set in an unnamed, crumbling city in the Northeast, it stars an against-type Jesse Eisenberg as a jacked-up, emotionally stunted gym bro who joins a cult of voluntarily and involuntarily celibate men. The director is John Trengrove, whose previous feature The Wound used a very real Xhosa rite of passage as a way to examine the ever-knotted rituals of male bonding. The subcultures in Manodrome...
- 10/30/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Among the best movies to kick off the summer movie season this past May, Matt Johnson’s Berlinale and SXSW selection BlackBerry stars Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, and Johnson in the story of the men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone. Backed by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), as part of the film’s financing, Johnson was contracted to deliver the project in three parts to air on the Canadian station, along with a theatrical release. Now that expanded version will also get a U.S. release as AMC have announced a special three-part television event. Expanding from the original film’s two-hour runtime, this new version features 16 minutes of never-before-seen footage. On AMC, BlackBerry will air in three parts on November 13, 14 and 15. All three episodes will be available on AMC+ on November 13.
“We are thrilled to bring BlackBerry to...
“We are thrilled to bring BlackBerry to...
- 10/24/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ten years after Jonathan Glazer debuted Under the Skin, he’s now reteamed with A24 for the chilling Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. Based on Martin Amis’s Auschwitz-set novel, the film features Toni Erdmann star Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel as we witness their daily activities outside the concentration camp. Shot by Łukasz Żal with Mica Levi reuniting to score, A24 has now unveiled the first trailer ahead of a December 15 release.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Ten years after Under the Skin, the brilliant, elusive Johnathan Glazer returns with one of the most haunting films of this or any year. It’s adapted from Martin Amis’ acidic 2014 novel, though to call this an adaptation would be like saying a thunderstorm adapts the wind. Just as he did with Under the Skin, Glazer takes but a sliver of the source text and lets his imagination––perhaps his nightmares––take over.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Ten years after Under the Skin, the brilliant, elusive Johnathan Glazer returns with one of the most haunting films of this or any year. It’s adapted from Martin Amis’ acidic 2014 novel, though to call this an adaptation would be like saying a thunderstorm adapts the wind. Just as he did with Under the Skin, Glazer takes but a sliver of the source text and lets his imagination––perhaps his nightmares––take over.
- 10/17/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With almost twenty narrative features to his name, Aki Kaurismäki is one of the most consistent directors in terms of quality that is working today. Now returning with his first film in over half-a-decade, Fallen Leaves picked up the Jury Prize from this year’s Cannes and was selected as Finland’s Oscar entry. Telling the story of two lonely people (Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen) who meet each other by chance in the Helsinki night and try to find the first, only, and ultimate love of their lives, Mubi will release the film on November 17 and now the first full trailer has arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review it’s “a charming, moving, bittersweet romance packed with all the lovely things we’ve come to associate with him after four decades.” As he continued, “The locations and colors still come in admirable shades of mustard and pea...
Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review it’s “a charming, moving, bittersweet romance packed with all the lovely things we’ve come to associate with him after four decades.” As he continued, “The locations and colors still come in admirable shades of mustard and pea...
- 10/12/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Four hours of Frederick Wiseman capturing the inner workings of a three-star Michelin restaurant in France is as glorious as that logline sounds. The delightful, breezy Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, a selection at Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, will now be released at Film Forum starting on November 22 just ahead of your Thanksgiving meal and the first trailer has landed.
Here’s the official synopsis: “The Troisgros family Restaurant has been holding 3 Michelin stars for 55 years over four generations. An immersive experience, showing artistry, ingenuity, and imagination of the staff, creating and presenting meals of highest quality as Michel Troisros turns over responsibility to his son, César.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The first of Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros‘ four hours moves as quick as a glacier. Herbs are inspected at a farmer’s market. Two chefs weigh up the benefits of pike and zander. Fans of Frederick Wiseman, immediately recognizing these rhythms,...
Here’s the official synopsis: “The Troisgros family Restaurant has been holding 3 Michelin stars for 55 years over four generations. An immersive experience, showing artistry, ingenuity, and imagination of the staff, creating and presenting meals of highest quality as Michel Troisros turns over responsibility to his son, César.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The first of Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros‘ four hours moves as quick as a glacier. Herbs are inspected at a farmer’s market. Two chefs weigh up the benefits of pike and zander. Fans of Frederick Wiseman, immediately recognizing these rhythms,...
- 10/6/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Few 2023 features have made a streak comparable to Orlando, My Political Biography, the sole documentary to play in main slates for Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF––after winning the Special Jury, Best Documentary, Tagesspiegel Reader’s Jury, and Special Mention prizes at Berlinale. Paul B. Preciado’s film casts “twenty trans and non-binary individuals in the role of Orlando as they perform interpretations of scenes from [Virginia Woolf’s] novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of identity and transition.” Janus Films and Sideshow will release it in New York on November 10 and LA on November 17, ahead of which there is a trailer.
As Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Enter Paul B. Preciado, the celebrated French author of Testo Junkie and An Apartment on Uranus, and one of the most revered voices in that discourse. Orlando, My Political Biography, Preciado’s new work––and his first behind the camera––is the...
As Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Enter Paul B. Preciado, the celebrated French author of Testo Junkie and An Apartment on Uranus, and one of the most revered voices in that discourse. Orlando, My Political Biography, Preciado’s new work––and his first behind the camera––is the...
- 10/5/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
One of the most purely pleasurable films of the year, Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things secured France’s pick as their Oscar entry over Anatomy of a Fall, which should be no surprise to those who have seen both films. Led by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, the culinary drama may go down easy, but there’s an impressive sense of heartbreak and longing to the film, which will next stop by the 61st New York Film Festival before opening from IFC Films. Along with a new trailer, they’ve set an awards-qualifying run in December 2023, then a limited opening on February 9, 2024 and expansion on February 14, 2024.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Last time Benoît Magimel appeared in the Cannes competition, a vision in Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, he played a foreign diplomat who stalked an island of French Polynesia like a trashy king. If Serra’s...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Last time Benoît Magimel appeared in the Cannes competition, a vision in Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, he played a foreign diplomat who stalked an island of French Polynesia like a trashy king. If Serra’s...
- 10/4/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the best surprises in cinema this year was the news that Ryusuke Hamaguchi, just two years after his perfect one-two punch of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car, had secretly shot and completed another film that was to premiere in just a few weeks at Venice Film Festival. After picking up the Grand Jury Prize there, the serene and expertly scripted Evil Does Not Exist will now stop by the 61st New York Film Festival ahead of a to-be-announced release from Sideshow and Janus Films. Ahead of the premiere, the first trailer has arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “A quiet, funny, confounding mystery, Evil plays out amongst the forests and streams of a remote village close to Tokyo. Tensions are raised when two representatives for the glamping company, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), arrive to talk things over. The locals, in particular a man named Takumi,...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “A quiet, funny, confounding mystery, Evil plays out amongst the forests and streams of a remote village close to Tokyo. Tensions are raised when two representatives for the glamping company, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), arrive to talk things over. The locals, in particular a man named Takumi,...
- 10/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Few titles from this year’s Cannes were a bigger surprise than The Delinquents, a three-hour-plus Argentinian crime comedy with existentialist leanings. Word from the festival was largely outstanding, critics finding Rodrigo Moreno’s treatment of the heist subgenre entirely fresh when such seems impossible. Ahead of its October 18 release from Mubi, a trailer has arrived.
As Rory O’Connor said in our review, “In each of those lives the film’s central question about the nature and cost of freedom is finely sketched out. The men Morán encounters in prison enjoy a freedom of time and thought that is alien to him at first; while in Córdoba, both men discover a freedom beyond the reach of their urban, consumerist lives. The money, of course, promises another kind of freedom entirely. These ideas are drip-fed over The Delinquents‘ leisurely runtime, and thanks to Moreno’s patient, wistful approach, there is no...
As Rory O’Connor said in our review, “In each of those lives the film’s central question about the nature and cost of freedom is finely sketched out. The men Morán encounters in prison enjoy a freedom of time and thought that is alien to him at first; while in Córdoba, both men discover a freedom beyond the reach of their urban, consumerist lives. The money, of course, promises another kind of freedom entirely. These ideas are drip-fed over The Delinquents‘ leisurely runtime, and thanks to Moreno’s patient, wistful approach, there is no...
- 9/14/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Fallen Leaves, Aki Kaurismäki’s first film since 2017’s The Other Side of Hope, took home the Jury Prize from this year’s Cannes while charming critics more than just about anything else in competition. His “gentle tragicomedy” marks the fourth part of a working-class series, following Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, and The Match Factory Girl, bearing influence from Ozu, Bresson, and Chaplin.
Ahead of a fall-festival run and November 17 theatrical release, Mubi have unveiled a brief but lovely teaser that confirms Rory O’Connor’s Cannes diagnosis of “a charming, moving, bittersweet romance packed with all the lovely things we’ve come to associate with him after four decades.” As he continued, “The locations and colors still come in admirable shades of mustard and pea soup––as do the characters and their moods. As a film, Fallen Leaves could hardly be simpler––two people living separate, lonesome lives meet and...
Ahead of a fall-festival run and November 17 theatrical release, Mubi have unveiled a brief but lovely teaser that confirms Rory O’Connor’s Cannes diagnosis of “a charming, moving, bittersweet romance packed with all the lovely things we’ve come to associate with him after four decades.” As he continued, “The locations and colors still come in admirable shades of mustard and pea soup––as do the characters and their moods. As a film, Fallen Leaves could hardly be simpler––two people living separate, lonesome lives meet and...
- 8/30/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Over the past six years Quentin Dupieux has been working at Hong Sangsoo’s speed, churning out a film every few months. The streak kicked off in 2018 with the deranged police procedural Keep an Eye Out; since then the Frenchman’s trained his camera on a leather jacket with homicidal urges (2019’s Deerskin), an oversized fly-turned-bankable-pet (2020’s Mandibles), a married couple rewinding time through a tunnel in their new house (2022’s Incredible But True), and a team of leather-clad avengers ridding the world of monsters with the power of tobacco’s lethal substances (2022’s Smoking Causes Coughing). Tying these disparate projects isn’t just their director’s proclivity for the gonzo, but also a certain narrative economy. Dupieux––who’s written, directed, shot, and edited all his films since the 2010 breakthrough Rubber (in which a tire rolled through the U.S. on a killing spree)––likes to traffic in short,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
While the fall movie lineup continues to shift due to studios adamantly deciding not to fairly pay the writers and actors responsible for them being in business in the first place, not much has changed when it comes to August. Aside from A24 yanking Julio Torres’ Problemista from its August 4 opening, the rest of the calendar has stayed intact and here are the films that should be on your radar.
13. What Comes Around (Amy Redford; Aug. 4)
One of the most divisive films to premiere at TIFF last year was Amy Redford’s What Comes Around (formerly titled Roost). Led by Grace Van Dien, Summer Phoenix, Jesse Garcia, and Kyle Gallner, the thriller tracked a young love affair that becomes a menacing game of cat-and-mouse where nothing is what it seems. Jared Mobarak said in his review, “What Comes Around is a tricky film to talk about without massive spoilers unless,...
13. What Comes Around (Amy Redford; Aug. 4)
One of the most divisive films to premiere at TIFF last year was Amy Redford’s What Comes Around (formerly titled Roost). Led by Grace Van Dien, Summer Phoenix, Jesse Garcia, and Kyle Gallner, the thriller tracked a young love affair that becomes a menacing game of cat-and-mouse where nothing is what it seems. Jared Mobarak said in his review, “What Comes Around is a tricky film to talk about without massive spoilers unless,...
- 8/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A standout among feature-length directorial debuts this year, David Depesseville’s Astrakan is one of the most piercing, enigmatic coming-of-age stories, proving there is still much to mine from the endless well of first experiences. Shot in stunningly vivid 16mm by Simon Beaufils (Knife+Heart), the Locarno and New Directors/New Films selection follows a orphan who goes to live with foster parents as he experiences first love, passions, and family secrets. Ahead of a September 1 release in theaters and on VOD from Altered Innocence, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the first trailer and poster.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs, even ones killed in their mother’s womb. (Stella McCarthy once said it’s like wearing a fetus.) That ruthlessness—a sense of lost innocence; blood sacrifice—runs deep in Astrakan, a new film from France...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Astrakhan fur is unique: dark, beautiful, and stripped exclusively from newborn lambs, even ones killed in their mother’s womb. (Stella McCarthy once said it’s like wearing a fetus.) That ruthlessness—a sense of lost innocence; blood sacrifice—runs deep in Astrakan, a new film from France...
- 8/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Emerging as one of the most accomplished Japanese directors of the last decade, Harmonium and A Girl Missing director Kōji Fukada is back with his next feature. Love Life, which premiered at Venice Film Festival last fall, follows a couple living with their young son, when a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father back into their life. Ahead of an August 11 release beginning at IFC Center, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived from Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Rory O’Connor said in his Venice review, “Love Life is one of those films that really wears its screenplay. The plot follows a mother’s attempts to come to terms with the death of a child, but it’s more about unusual paths the journey takes for her to get there. The director is Kôji Fukada, a filmmaker who studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa and cites Rohmer as a key influence. The...
Rory O’Connor said in his Venice review, “Love Life is one of those films that really wears its screenplay. The plot follows a mother’s attempts to come to terms with the death of a child, but it’s more about unusual paths the journey takes for her to get there. The director is Kôji Fukada, a filmmaker who studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa and cites Rohmer as a key influence. The...
- 8/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
After Rory O’Connor reviewed Kamila Andini’s Before, Now & Then some 18 months ago at Berlinale, where it picked up the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance, we’ve been awaiting a U.S. release, which finally comes this month. Set amid the political violence of late-1960s Indonesia, the film follows Nana, the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner whose inner life remains with her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade prior. A survivor, Nana values her safety and material comforts, but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love. Forced to confront her husband’s blatant infidelity, Nana makes an unusual connection with his younger mistress, Ino. The two women, sharing their secrets and desires, discover a newfound freedom and intimacy withheld from them both by the strictures of patriarchal society. Ahead of an August 25 theatrical release from Film Movement, the first trailer has arrived.
- 8/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ask any short-film director and they’ll tell you the same thing: finding distribution for short films absolutely sucks. Ask any distributor and they’ll tell you the same thing: we want to release more short films but properly distributing them absolutely sucks.
Due credit to Cinema Guild for engineering a neat workaround: they’ve acquired Pedro Costa’s nine-minute short The Daughters of Fire off its Cannes premiere and will pair it with Hong Sangsoo’s 61-minute In Water––naturally branding the experience Fire+Water, at last giving Barbenheimer its reckoning. As Cinema Guild’s Peter Kelly noted, “There are too few opportunities for short films to play theatrically, but no recent short is more demanding of a theatrical experience than Pedro Costa’s monumental new work.” Apologies to everyone hoping they might watch the latest from one of our great imagemakers on their 13-inch MacBook Air. [Deadline]
The Daughters of Fire,...
Due credit to Cinema Guild for engineering a neat workaround: they’ve acquired Pedro Costa’s nine-minute short The Daughters of Fire off its Cannes premiere and will pair it with Hong Sangsoo’s 61-minute In Water––naturally branding the experience Fire+Water, at last giving Barbenheimer its reckoning. As Cinema Guild’s Peter Kelly noted, “There are too few opportunities for short films to play theatrically, but no recent short is more demanding of a theatrical experience than Pedro Costa’s monumental new work.” Apologies to everyone hoping they might watch the latest from one of our great imagemakers on their 13-inch MacBook Air. [Deadline]
The Daughters of Fire,...
- 7/25/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
One of the most puzzling (non-) happenings in international cinema this year is the lack of U.S. distribution for Philippe Garrel’s stellar new drama The Plough. A family affair starring Louis Garrel, Damien Mongin, Esther Garrel, Lena Garrel, Francine Bergé Aurélien Recoing, Mathilde Weil, and Asma Messaoudene, the film about a company of puppeteers premiered at Berlinale this year and is still looking for a home here. However, it’ll open in France this September, and with it the first trailer has arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “In 1947, ten years before becoming an actor, Philippe Garrel’s father, Maurice, joined a company of puppeteers. That piece of history is like a well of inspiration in The Plough, Garrel’s latest cinematic family affair and a film as effortless as they come. It stars all three of Philippe’s children––Louie, Lena, and Esther––as brother...
Rory O’Connor said in his Berlinale review, “In 1947, ten years before becoming an actor, Philippe Garrel’s father, Maurice, joined a company of puppeteers. That piece of history is like a well of inspiration in The Plough, Garrel’s latest cinematic family affair and a film as effortless as they come. It stars all three of Philippe’s children––Louie, Lena, and Esther––as brother...
- 7/24/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the more compelling discoveries we came across on the festival circuit last year was Andrew Legge’s directorial debut Lola, a faux found footage film that plays with historical and science fiction. Starring Stefanie Martini, Emma Appleton, Rory Fleck Byrne, and Aaron Monaghan, the film follows two sisters in 1941 Englad who invent a machine that intercepts broadcasts from the future. With World War II dawning, they use it to change history. Picked up by Dark Star Films for a U.S. release in theaters and on VOD on August 9, the first trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the official synopsis: “1941, sisters Thom and Mars have built a machine, Lola, that can intercept radio and TV broadcasts from the future. This allows them to listen to iconic music before it has been made, place bets knowing what the outcome will be and embrace their inner punk well before the movement came into existence.
Here’s the official synopsis: “1941, sisters Thom and Mars have built a machine, Lola, that can intercept radio and TV broadcasts from the future. This allows them to listen to iconic music before it has been made, place bets knowing what the outcome will be and embrace their inner punk well before the movement came into existence.
- 7/10/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While the 87-year-old Ken Loach is still with us, the legendary director has indicated The Old Oak, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, will be his last work. Following a pub owner in a dilated mining town, the film tells the story of tensions rising when Syrian refugees join the community. While the film is still seeking U.S. distribution, it’ll arrive in the U.K. at the end of September and now the first trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, but it’s also the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. Tj Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his predicament is endangered even more...
Here’s the synopsis: “The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, but it’s also the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. Tj Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his predicament is endangered even more...
- 7/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While this summer will bring Barbies, nuclear explosions, and the return of both Ethan Hunt and our favorite professor of archaeology, our most-anticipated cinematic experience is certainly the latest work from German auteur Christian Petzold. Forgoing his standard fall film-festival run, following a Berlinale premiere (this time where he picked up the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize), Afire will arrive in theaters sooner than expected, specifically this July from Sideshow and Janus Films. Ahead of its release, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer,...
Here’s the synopsis: “While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer,...
- 6/20/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Following a number of disappointing blockbusters in May, there are a few promising ones this month (as glimpsed in our honorable mentions below), but it feels like we’ll have to wait until July for a trio of heavy hitters. In the meantime, June brings an eclectic mix of sturdy debuts, auteur-driven offerings, and accomplished documentaries.
15. Shadow Kingdom (Alma Har’el; June 6)
Technically released in limited capacity a couple years ago, the Bob Dylan concert film Shadow Kingdom is now getting proper distribution. As Nick Newman said in our summer movie preview, “Your local Bob Dylan obsessive has surely mentioned Shadow Kingdom, the 2021 concert film that saw him rework an assortment of earlier songs––some established, some deeper in the back catalogue. One case (‘To Be Alone with You’) marked an almost-total rewrite, and courtesy the end credits (which we now know is called ‘Sierra’s Theme’) an entirely new track.
15. Shadow Kingdom (Alma Har’el; June 6)
Technically released in limited capacity a couple years ago, the Bob Dylan concert film Shadow Kingdom is now getting proper distribution. As Nick Newman said in our summer movie preview, “Your local Bob Dylan obsessive has surely mentioned Shadow Kingdom, the 2021 concert film that saw him rework an assortment of earlier songs––some established, some deeper in the back catalogue. One case (‘To Be Alone with You’) marked an almost-total rewrite, and courtesy the end credits (which we now know is called ‘Sierra’s Theme’) an entirely new track.
- 6/2/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has now concluded, with Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall taking home the top honors. While our coverage will continue with a few more reviews this week––and far beyond as we provide updates on the journey of these selections––we’ve asked our contributors on the ground to share favorites.
See their picks below, and explore all of our coverage here.
Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An) Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams) Eureka (Lisandro Alonso) About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice) Un Prince (Pierre Creton) Kubi (Takeshi Kitano)
Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) The Pot-au-Feu (Tran Anh Hung) Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) Killers of the Flower Moon...
See their picks below, and explore all of our coverage here.
Leonardo Goi (@LeonardoGoi)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Pham Thien An) Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams) Eureka (Lisandro Alonso) About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan) Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice) Un Prince (Pierre Creton) Kubi (Takeshi Kitano)
Luke Hicks (@lou_hicks)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) The Pot-au-Feu (Tran Anh Hung) Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) Killers of the Flower Moon...
- 5/31/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
After a fairly quiet last few years (at least since his iconic brief stint in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return), Michael Cera is back in the spotlight. This July he’ll be seen in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and then in August his reunion with writer-director Dustin Guy Defa following Person to Person will arrive in theaters, not to mention upcoming films by Kristoffer Borgli, Eric Wareheim, and Michael Angarano.
The Adults, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year and will stop by Tribeca, follows Eric (Cera) as he returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts. While Maggie (Sophia Lillis) attempts to recreate...
The Adults, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year and will stop by Tribeca, follows Eric (Cera) as he returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts. While Maggie (Sophia Lillis) attempts to recreate...
- 5/30/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
One of the highlights of Berlinale this year was Reality, which expanded Syndey Sweeney’s talents in her finest performance yet. Directed by Tina Satter from her own acclaimed play Is This a Room, the drama captures the story of U.S. Air Force member-turned-Nsa translator named Reality Winner leaked a document to The Intercept exposing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Taking the unique conceit of performing the actual transcript of her arrest down to the small details, the film will land on Max later this month, and now the first trailer has arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Satter’s film is also remarkable for the economy with which it sows those ideas (I’d love to hear what Steven Soderbergh would say about it). Reality doesn’t have a script in any conventional sense. There is no space for preaching, only the words spoken...
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Satter’s film is also remarkable for the economy with which it sows those ideas (I’d love to hear what Steven Soderbergh would say about it). Reality doesn’t have a script in any conventional sense. There is no space for preaching, only the words spoken...
- 5/15/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
If you’ve perused our summer movie preview you may already have a sense of what films to keep on your radar this month, but it’s time to dig deeper into May. While much of our attention will be on the Cannes Film Festival, plenty of worthwhile offerings arrive stateside.
15. The Starling Girl (Laurel Parmet; May 12)
After breaking out in Babyteeth and Little Women, Eliza Scanlen finds an impressive new starring role with The Starling Girl. Michael Frank said in his review, “Scanlen shines as Starling, playing someone much younger than herself. She brings an assurance to the role. We belive in Jem. She’s naive-yet-overconfident, isolated-yet-connected, carefree-yet-shackled by a system designed to believe the word of men much older than her. Scanlen shows all of that and more. Her performance grounds a film that risks blending together with preceding pictures, raising it above any average trappings.”
14. L’immensita (Emanuele Crialese...
15. The Starling Girl (Laurel Parmet; May 12)
After breaking out in Babyteeth and Little Women, Eliza Scanlen finds an impressive new starring role with The Starling Girl. Michael Frank said in his review, “Scanlen shines as Starling, playing someone much younger than herself. She brings an assurance to the role. We belive in Jem. She’s naive-yet-overconfident, isolated-yet-connected, carefree-yet-shackled by a system designed to believe the word of men much older than her. Scanlen shows all of that and more. Her performance grounds a film that risks blending together with preceding pictures, raising it above any average trappings.”
14. L’immensita (Emanuele Crialese...
- 5/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the most fascinating gems on the festival circuit last year was Cyril Schäublin’s carefully observed drama Unrest. Set in a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland, the Berlinale winner and NYFF selection follows Josephine, a young factory worker, who produces the unrest wheel, swinging in the heart of the mechanical watch. Exposed to new ways of organizing money, time and labor, she gets involved with the local movement of the anarchist watchmakers, where she meets Russian traveler Pyotr Kropotkin. Ahead of a May 5 release from KimStim, the new trailer and poster have now arrived.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The best word to describe Unrest is “clever.” It isn’t on the level of the artisans and thinkers it lovingly portrays—all the graphers and the ists—but not so far off; and more than enough to be worthy of their story. Consider the title’s neat duality.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “The best word to describe Unrest is “clever.” It isn’t on the level of the artisans and thinkers it lovingly portrays—all the graphers and the ists—but not so far off; and more than enough to be worthy of their story. Consider the title’s neat duality.
- 4/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Editor’s note: Last year at Berlinale, Rory O’Connor caught up with Quentin Dupieux who was there to premiere Incredible But True, which would go on to be the first of two features of 2022, the latter of which was the Cannes premiere Smoking Causes Coughing. With both films now available stateside, we’re sharing the conversation.
It’s early afternoon in Berlin, crisp and cold, the kind of February day you always seem to get around the Berlinale. The festival cautiously returned in 2022 to a live, in-person event after going online, like so many others, in 2021, and had reopened its doors earlier with Peter Von Kant, the latest from François Ozon, a reimagining of the Fassbinder classic that had itself premiered at the same festival almost exactly a half-century before.
The director we’d come to talk to is not so fond of reimagining. Premiering in the Berlinale Special, Incredible...
It’s early afternoon in Berlin, crisp and cold, the kind of February day you always seem to get around the Berlinale. The festival cautiously returned in 2022 to a live, in-person event after going online, like so many others, in 2021, and had reopened its doors earlier with Peter Von Kant, the latest from François Ozon, a reimagining of the Fassbinder classic that had itself premiered at the same festival almost exactly a half-century before.
The director we’d come to talk to is not so fond of reimagining. Premiering in the Berlinale Special, Incredible...
- 3/29/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
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