Wicked Little Letters
The novelty of a movie aimed at a typical anglophile audience with uptight British people swearing and reading vulgar words eventually wears thin.
Film-Forward
Achilles/Samsara/Sujo | First Look 2024
It’s always a thrill when a film surprises, and Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño’s Samsara, set in Laos and Zanzibar, is a lovely and adventurous work.
High & Low—John Galliano
The fashion designer’s insidious, anti-Semitic comments overrides the runway footage and the fawning heaps of praise from luminaries.
Onlookers
Kimi Takesue’s entrancingly framed image-based documentary follows swarms of tourists in Laos.
The Monk and the Gun
A buoyant parable that manages to portray messy, complicated matters like democracy in a deft, light-to-the-touch, yet complex manner.
How to Have Sex
At first, the film conjures Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers as it revels in the shallow inanity of carousing drunk teens. But wait for its second half.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
The elegant framing, the long takes, and the eclectic soundscapes almost induce a trancelike state.
The End We Start From
Though the movie feels patterned after other survivalist sagas, its depiction of climate change is chilling and realistically captured.
The Color Purple
At first, it’s difficult to not think of Whoopi Goldberg’s incredible debut, but Fantasia Barrino proves a marvelous screen presence with her authentic, powerful turn.