Review: “Farewell My Concubine” (1993)

In 1993, Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine, a sumptuous, decades-spanning epic based on the Lilian Lee novel, became the first Chinese film to win the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, tying with Jane Campion’s period drama The Piano. One of the most notable works from who would become one of the most notable […]

Review: “Twilight” (1990)

Hungarian filmmaker György Fehér’s 1990 noir Twilight (Szürkület), loosely based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1958 novel The Pledge: Requiem for the Detective Novel, is a film that’s been so rarely seen, there isn’t even an existing Wikipedia article about it, and the press release announcing its new 4K restoration wasted no time drawing a comparison to […]

Review: “Passion” (2008)

When friends gather at a restaurant—a glimpse at the sign above the entrance, El Secreto, not-so-subtly foreshadowing what’s about to occur inside— to celebrate Kaho’s (Aoba Kawai) birthday, the jovial gathering spirals into an evening fraught with questions and confusion when Kaho and her boyfriend Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto) make an announcement that ought to have […]

Review: “Huda’s Salon”

There’s something about going to a hair salon that many people find comforting. That feeling doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what hairstyle you’re going to try on a given day, but moreso with the sense of community that comes with regularly going to a place, seeing the same people, and being able to […]

Review: “The Pink Cloud”

I think it’s safe to assume that no one will ever get to watch writer/director Iuli Gerbase’s debut feature film, “The Pink Cloud,” exactly the way she intended. That isn’t because the final product of the film itself isn’t something she stands behind; quite the contrary. Rather, it’s due to exterior factors that have rocked […]

Review: ”Drive My Car”

By the time the title and opening credits of “Drive My Car” drop approximately 45 minutes into its three hour runtime, it already feels like we’ve experienced a complete mini movie. But the embarrassment of riches that director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film, based on the short story by Haruki Murakami, contains are yet to unveil themselves. […]

Review: “Parallel Mothers”

In the maternity ward of a Madrid hospital, two women are about to give birth. Janis Martinez (Penélope Cruz) is an acclaimed photographer approaching 40. She had an affair with Arturo (Israel Elejalde), the archaeologist assisting her with the excavation of a mass grave in her home town, where her great-grandfather and many other residents […]

Review: “A Hero”

Nothing and no one are as they seem in Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero,” a drama that examines its characters’ ethics with all the tension of a thriller. The writer and director’s latest film, Iran’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards, kicks off with a deceptively simple premise. Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) has been imprisoned for […]

Review: “Undine”

Writer/director Christian Petzold’s “Undine” opens with a conversation, the kind of conversation that most viewers will immediately recognize, and the kind that the titular protagonist (played by Paula Beer) clearly dreads. Undine is sitting across from her boyfriend, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), at an outdoor café, and he is breaking up with her. He’s met someone […]

Cinema Classics: “La Strada” (1954)

Italian director Federico Fellini considered “La Strada” (“The Road”) to be his most personal film. The story of two people who stay together without really knowing why came to him first in the form of vague, somber feelings, with the lead female character ultimately being inspired by his wife Giulietta Masina. Masina ending up playing that […]