‘Wolfram’ Review: Warwick Thornton Deftly Reframes Painful Indigenous Australian Experience Through the Lens of Classic Western Archetypes

‘Wolfram’ Review: Warwick Thornton Deftly Reframes Painful Indigenous Australian Experience Through the Lens of Classic Western Archetypes

An experienced cinematographer before he turned to directing, Warwick Thornton has a feel for the Central Australian desert and the craggy MacDonnell Ranges that’s both epic and intimate. His refined sense of composition is directly informed by the landscape around Alice Springs where he grew up and his subcutaneous connection to it imbues his films…

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‘Salvation’ Review: Mystical Visions, Folkloric Superstitions and Political Alarmism Combine to Unsettling Effect in Anatomy of a Massacre

‘Salvation’ Review: Mystical Visions, Folkloric Superstitions and Political Alarmism Combine to Unsettling Effect in Anatomy of a Massacre

The title of Turkish writer-director Emin Alper’s Salvation (Kurtuluş) carries a bitter sting, pointing up how a perceived enemy threat can be manipulated to seed survivalist panic that escalates into genocide. Salvation for one side means elimination of the other, and establishing which is the righteous side can be entirely subjective, especially when the aggrieved…

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‘Moscas (Flies)’ Review: Mexican Director Fernando Eimbcke Returns to His Roots With Simple, Sweet, Emotionally Resonant B&W Charmer

‘Moscas (Flies)’ Review: Mexican Director Fernando Eimbcke Returns to His Roots With Simple, Sweet, Emotionally Resonant B&W Charmer

Fernando Eimbcke’s fifth feature, Moscas (Flies), opens with a loose string of vignettes. Teresita Sánchez —  a 2022 Sundance Special Jury Prize winner for Dos Estaciones, also known for her roles in Lila Avilés’ The Chambermaid and Tótem — plays Olga, a weary-looking middle-aged woman who wakes up to the insistent buzzing of one of…

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‘Yellow Letters’ Review: ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Director Delivers a Modern-Day Political Parable That’s Strongly Acted but Hampered by Vagueness

‘Yellow Letters’ Review: ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Director Delivers a Modern-Day Political Parable That’s Strongly Acted but Hampered by Vagueness

For his follow-up to the tense and claustrophobic German middle school drama, The Teachers’ Lounge, director Ilker Çatak has attempted something both more ambitious and more mystifying: a tale of authoritarian oppression, artistic strife and family conflict that’s set in contemporary Turkey but was shot entirely in Germany, with no attempts to hide the fact…

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#‘What Does That Nature Say to You’ Review: Hong Sang-soo Is in Top Form With a Convivial Meet-the-Parents Occasion That Goes South Before Dessert

#‘What Does That Nature Say to You’ Review: Hong Sang-soo Is in Top Form With a Convivial Meet-the-Parents Occasion That Goes South Before Dessert

No figure in world cinema is as productive as South Korean one-man band Hong Sang-soo, or as consistent in exploring variations on similar themes, always from a fresh angle. With such a prolific output — he has 33 features under his belt, all but three of them made since 2000 — they can’t all be…

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#‘What Marielle Knows’ Review: In This Darkly Clever German Comedy, a Teenage Girl Can See Right Through Her Parents

#‘What Marielle Knows’ Review: In This Darkly Clever German Comedy, a Teenage Girl Can See Right Through Her Parents

Like a Yorgos Lanthimos movie co-directed with M. Night Shyamalan, the dark supernatural satire What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle weiss) takes a Hollywood high concept and turns it into a scathing comedy about a bourgeois family in deep crisis. This second feature from German writer-director Frédéric Hambalek is a big step up from his no-budget…

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#‘Gloria!’ Review: An All-Female Orchestra at the Turn of the 19th Century Does It for Themselves in Fluffy Italian Debut

#‘Gloria!’ Review: An All-Female Orchestra at the Turn of the 19th Century Does It for Themselves in Fluffy Italian Debut

To note that Gloria!, the directing debut of Italian actor-singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario, is vapid, pseudo-feminist, sentimental piffle would be entirely accurate. And yet, one must also admit that it is at least mildly entertaining piffle, absorbing in the same way that pop videos with lots of dancing and catchy tunes playing in the corner of…

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#‘Langue Étrangère’ Review: A Tough and Tender Romance Between Two Teen Girls Finding Each Other in Translation

#‘Langue Étrangère’ Review: A Tough and Tender Romance Between Two Teen Girls Finding Each Other in Translation

Crossing several borders at once, the coming-of-age romance Langue Étrangère leaps over state lines, overcomes language barriers and defies heteronormative boundaries to tell the story of two 17-year-old pen pals who fall for one another while visiting their mutual homes to brush up on their German and French, respectively. Directed by Claire Burger — herself…

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#‘Architecton’ Review: From the Director of ‘Gunda,’ a Visually Mesmerizing Meditation on the Bedrock of Existence

#‘Architecton’ Review: From the Director of ‘Gunda,’ a Visually Mesmerizing Meditation on the Bedrock of Existence

At a time when movies are made to be watched on smaller and smaller screens, one director whose work still demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible is Victor Kossakovsky. The Russian auteur has been roving the planet for two decades now, employing state-of-the-art equipment and the best cameramen around to capture life…

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