The cinematic event of the year is undeniably A Star Is Born – it is a film that has taken the world by surprise, and surpassed every expectation put upon the third remake of a classic film. A great deal has been written about this film – many have mentioned how A Star Is Born…

Loulou is a great film, a formal romantic masterpiece that sees director Maurice Pialat abandoning the stylistic pretensions of the French New Wave for something brutal, raw and visceral, a beautifully-constructed drama set in the dingy apartments and overcrowded bars of Paris and surrounds, as we watch the inner psychological workings of three core characters,…

Debra Granik is a great filmmaker. While not necessarily the most prolific film director, having only directed three feature films (and working on several fiction and non-fiction films in some capacity), she has shown herself to be a remarkably talented artist. This review is concerned with her most recent work of art, the astonishing Leave…

At the beginning of Private Life, the new film from Tamara Jenkins, we are introduced to Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti), who are the quintessential artistic couple – he is a theatrical genius known for avant-garde productions, and she is a highly-acclaimed writer whose first book is about to be published after years…

Agnès Varda is an institution. She is a filmmaker who made films before, during and after the French New Wave. She is, by that very rationale, the epitomical figure of the French New Wave – and considering she was one of a few women in a cinematic movement almost entirely controlled by men, her films…

The 1980s were a strange time for American filmmaking. There were some excellent films produced during that decade (however, considering the two best American films of that era were made by foreigners, it is quite an anomaly). Quite significantly, some filmmakers that had previously made towering masterpieces in the 1960s and 1970s started to become…

Life is a precious thing – regardless of what you believe, I think we can all appreciate the fact that life is something to be cherished – but there is something else that governs life in many instances that is often extremely important, as well as extremely divisive: the right to choose. This is the…

There was something about Rainer Werner Fassbinder that made him so exceptionally special. Perhaps it was his career of directing nearly four dozen films in a span of just over a decade, making him one of the most prolific auteurs of his generation, distinctive not only for his vast body of work but also the…

What a terrific film Lucrecia Martel has made with Zama. A powerful historical drama that transports the audience into the past, with the director’s meticulous style and dedication to her narrative providing a substantially fascinating journey to a period that has been somewhat under-represented in contemporary literature. I have mentioned it before, but I find…

I’d like to begin this review in a way that seems entirely implausible and perhaps a bit silly: I want to formally apologize to Glenn Close. I have never appreciated her fully, and have consistently failed to recognize her extraordinary talents. Perhaps it was her career constantly being given the scraps of her contemporaries (or…