Review: “Wicker”

Desire— the release of it, and the suppression of it— can drive people wild. Wicker— Eleanor Wilson and Alexander Huston Fischer’s romantic fantasy based on Ursula Wills’ short story “The Wicker Husband”— understands that applies not just to physical lust, but also to the need to be an object of desire, to be wanted and […]

Review: “Clayface”

The day after I watched Clayface— the DC Universe entry that recounts the origin story of the long-standing Batman villain— I happened to attend an all-night horror movie marathon that kicked off with a 35 mm screening of David Cronenberg’s classic 1986 body horror movie The Fly. I don’t think I’d watched The Fly in […]

Review: “You Can See Everything”

As the days wind down, fading as fast as the sun dropping below the swelling waves outside, the walls of reality cave in, flimsy as a house of cards. Fourteen days before Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes begins an eleven-year sentence in federal prison for defrauding investors, Nathan Fielder fully moves into the San Diego beach […]

Review: “Verity”

Midway through Verity— director Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2018 psychological thriller novel— Lowen (Dakota Johnson) says at her belated birthday dinner, “I have resting bored face.” It’s a response to Jeremy’s (Josh Hartnett) accusation that she looks like she’s either not listening to him, or is uninterested in what he’s telling her. Humorously […]

Review: “The History of Concrete”

A man whose job is to blast pieces of gum off of sidewalks. A neighborhood who cares for a small fish pond on their block. A business that preserves dead people’s tattoos. A group of spiritualists who spend 52 days out running a 3,100 mile race in a loop around one city block in Queens. […]

SSIFF 2026: “Will You Still Be My Friend,” “Cute”

These two dramas premiering in this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival‘s New Directors category both tackle relationships, albeit in very different shades: Lu Po-Shun’s Will You Still Be My Friend, a safe but tender portrayal of adolescent male friendship crumbling under outside influence, and Marlene Emilie Lyngstad’s bold and controversial Cute, which deals both […]

SSIFF 2026: “Sants,” “Border”

This is the first year I’ve dipped my toes into the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the long-standing event on the Spanish coast that’s celebrating its 74th edition this year. I can’t say that I’m surprised that the films I’ve watched thus far have made bold swings in both content and form, with mixed results. […]

TIFF 2026: “IDDA,” “The World Before”

Premiering in the Platform section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, these two films tackle women growing up and confronting their changing feelings, whether it’s a contentious friendship in Irene Dionisio’s Italian drama IDDA, or a young girl’s newfound romantic yearnings for her childhood friend in Yoon Dan-bi’s Korean drama The World Before. While […]

TIFF 2026: “Head to Head,” “Salvation”

These two films, blending drama with shades of black comedy, premiering in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival‘s Discovery section tackle current trends, with varying degrees of success: Ghasideh Golmakani’s self-reflexive film about filmmaking and the oppressive restrictions imposed on women in Iran, Head to Head, and Tom Nicoll’s anxiety-inducing study of the dark side […]

TIFF 2026: “Children Untold”

Miwa Nishikawa’s riveting historical drama Children Untold stems from rather unique origins: the story for the writer and director’s feature film is derived from her own, as yet unpublished, novel, inspired in turn by research and archival testimony she began gathering while working on her 2020 movie Under the Open Sky, whose protagonist was modeled […]