Berlinale 2026: “Iván and Hadoum”

The landscape of Almería— a port city that sits on the Mediterranean Sea in southern Spain— is defined by desert plains and craggy hills. Within this arid country, connections to nature and the land are everywhere. It’s first and foremost present in the greenhouse where Iván (Silver Chicón) and Hadoum (Herminia Loh) are employed, harvesting, […]

Berlinale 2026: “I Understand Your Displeasure”

Do you ever think about who tidies your workplace? Who scrubs the toilets? Who takes out the trash? Most people don’t. It’s a thankless business, but also an extraordinarily cutthroat one, at least as evidenced by director Kilian Armando Friedrich’s debut feature, I Understand Your Displeasure. Heike (Sabine Thalau) is the customer service manager of […]

Review: “By Design”

With a lucidity that’s amusingly reflected in the lyrics of the Gershwin tune that recurs over the course of its runtime— “There’s a saying old, says that love is blind”— writer and director Amanda Kramer tackles the absurdity and tragedy of objectification in her latest feature film, By Design, the way that only a filmmaker […]

Review: “The President’s Cake”

The opening title card of The President’s Cake presents a paradox so absurd, it can only be real: following the start of the Gulf War in 1990, UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq greatly restrict the country’s resources, causing even the most common household staples to become not only expensive, but scarce, for average citizens. And yet […]

Review: “Send Help”

About a third of the way into Sam Raimi’s Send Help, Rachel McAdams’ purportedly meek office drone Linda Liddle stabs the wild boar she’s been tracking to provide food for herself and Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), the obnoxious colleague she’s stranded on a remote island somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand with, in the face, […]

Review: “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”

It’s difficult to watch, and even enjoy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple without feeling increasingly aware of its, shall we say, apparent lack of need to exist. A direct sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later that forms a bridge to a pending trilogy capper, director Nia DaCosta’s horror thriller pulls together characters from […]

Review: “Dead Man’s Wire”

Dead Man’s Wire is as lean and taut as they come, launching into action with little preamble. And yet, the film opens not with Tony Kiritsis (a live-wire Bill Skarsgård) entering the downtown office of his mortgage broker Richard Hall (Darce Montgomery), who he will very soon be taking hostage, believing that Hall and his […]

Review: “OBEX”

Cocooned from the shrill clicking of the 17-year cicada brood outside by the static buzz of his television sets— three, to be exact, stacked one on top of the other and nestled against a vast wall of VHS tapes— Conor (Albert Birney) lives a life of pleasant seclusion, drawing comfort from the company of his […]

Best Movies of 2025

Was 2025 a good year for movies? I find myself asking that question at the end of every year, although I don’t know why, because every year, regardless of its unique ups and downs, ultimately contains multiple gems that are worth getting excited about. My favorites mostly came in a rush at the tail-end of […]

Review: “Marty Supreme”

Marty Mauser isn’t a human being— he’s the vessel for a potent cocktail of relentless ambition and pure ego. Coasting by on the sheer force of his charisma, his arrogance ballooned so big it doesn’t allow space for anyone to refuse him, the competitive table tennis star doesn’t have an actual paying job, doesn’t worry […]