Quickie review: The Tobacconist
In this coming-of-age story, set mostly in Vienna just as the Nazis are rising, 17-year-old Franz (Simon Morzé) arrives from the countryside to work at a tobacco shop owned by…
Review: The Truth (La Vérité)
Director Hirokazu Koreeda's follow-up to his award winning Shoplifters could not be more different. No longer set in his home country Japan, The Truth is a mother-daughter drama set in…
Review: Babyteeth
In this wonderfully dark dramedy from down under, Milla (Eliza Scanlen - Little Women) is a cancer stricken 16-year-old who falls for free spirited drug dealer Moses (Toby Wallace) much…
Review: Lucky Grandma
This dark comedy set mainly in New York's Chinatown begins with curmudgeonly chain-smoker Grandma (Tsai Chin - Joy Luck Club, Casino Royale) visiting LeiLei the Fortune Teller (Wai Ching Ho…
Review: Deerskin (Le daim)
This has to be one of the oddest movies I've seen in a long while! It's from Quentin Dupieux the writer/director who brought us Rubber. In case you missed that…
Review: The Whistlers (La Gomera)
A beautiful woman. 30 million euros. A detective who's tired of his job. All the elements of a classic thriller are present in this Romanian film noir. Cristi (Vlad Ivanov)…
Review: Corpus Christi (Boze Cialo)
Based on a true story, Corpus Christi is the tale of 20-year-old Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) who, just sprung from a violent juvenile detention center and heading for a new job,…
Review: Incitement
Talk about a film that is hard to watch! In this political thriller, you're watching the evolution of assassin Yigal Amir (Yehuda Nahari Halevi), a law student who decides that…
Review: Balloon (Ballon)
Seems like all I'm seeing lately are film based on true stories. In this one, two families living in Cold War East Germany in 1979 plan a daring escape to…
Review: Beanpole (Дылда)
War is hell. And life after war is, too. Most war films concentrate on the effects that the carnage has on men, but this Russian melodrama looks at how the women…
Review: Weathering with You
I'm not a big animation watcher, at least not of the big Disney/Pixar variety. But anime is a different story. Films like Spirited Away or Akira feel every bit as…
Review: Synonyms
Based on the real-life experiences of writer-director Nadav Lapid (The Kindergarten Teacher), Synonyms is the strange story of a young Israeli man named Yoav (Tom Mercier) who comes to Paris to escape…
Review: Britt-Marie Was Here
We've seen this one before. An older woman finds out her husband has been having an affair and leaves him. First she struggles with it and then she finds herself.…
Review: This is Not Berlin
In this coming-of-age film set in Mexico City in the 80s, 17-year-olds Carlos and Gera are on the cusp of adulthood. And when they're invited to the coolest club in…