Film-Forward

Book adaptation

Stars at Noon | NYFF 2022

Claire Denis’s latest is wobbly, sometimes mesmerizing, but meandering, though it features one of the year’s best musical scores.

On the Come Up

The performances certainly carry On the Come Up’s weight, but its pacing less so.

The Wonder | TIFF 2022

The team behind this book adaptation spins a sinuous narrative of many colors. It’s easily one of the classiest films that Netflix has produced. 

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

A widowed British house cleaner falls in love with a Christian Dior dress and aims to buy one for herself in this sweet, if unsurprising, Cinderella story.

Lost Illusions

A lush yet propulsive story of a writer’s rise and fall in 19th-century Paris that moves fast and is loads of fun.

Mothering Sunday

A British period drama that subverts the polite conventions of the genre with its frank depiction of sex.

Fabian: Going to the Dogs

Welcome to Weimar–era Berlin, a world of economic instability, wild partying, cabaret performers, rampant sexuality, and where Nazis are beginning to march the streets.

Benedetta

Veteran provocateur Paul Verhoeven’s movie about lust and mania in a 17th-century Tuscan convent fulfills its sensationalistic promise.

Prayers for the Stolen

The straightforward and innocent way of how kids perceive the world, despite how complicated and rough the surroundings, is remarkably depicted in the splendid first feature film by Tatiana Huezo.