Film-Forward

Crime

Palme d’Or Winner “I, Daniel Blake” | Cannes 2016

Urgency. That was the main ingredient propelling many of the best films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including the winner of the Palme d’Or, I, Daniel Blake.

A Bigger Splash

A hothouse drama and a refreshingly cynical thriller with two ace performers pushing edgy parts way over-the-top.

A Monster with a Thousand Heads

What starts as a cancer drama shifts to a thriller that plays out almost seemingly in real time.

The American Side

In many ways, The American Side has it all—crackling wit, crazy science, and dames as wicked as they are beautiful.

Triple 9

The rough and intense Triple 9 goes to the limit of what we’ve seen of corrupt cops in movies, and with a near-perfect cast: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, and Aaron Paul. In other words, it’s another button pushing, balls-to-the-wall John Hillcoat movie.

The Club

Talk about your tough sell. Critics have their work cut out for them when discussing well-made but audience-repelling films. For example, Room, centered on a mother and her five-year-old son kept captive in a shed for years on end, is one of the lowest grossing films to be nominated for the best picture Oscar. The Auschwitz-set Son of Saul has earned wide acclaim, but it […]

Bleak Street

Bleak Street makes Blue Velvet look like The Sound of Music. Mexican director Arturo Ripstein shares key artistic touches with David Lynch: surreal longueurs, a sense of claustrophobia, settings that feel tawdrily contemporary and enigmatically retro at the same time. But Bleak Street trawls through a far deeper level of brutal desperation than Blue Velvet. […]

The World of Kanako

The World of Kanako is not a film that produces a lukewarm reaction. It’s pretty much a love or hate kind of situation. Of course, you can do both. Connections to films can be like relationships, and this is one you can absolutely despise loving. In fact, it’s a response the movie practically demands. There […]

Kingdom of Shadows

Those who have protested against how Sicario portrayed Mexico as overrun with brutally violent drug cartels, corrupt law enforcement, and distrusted politicians may not be any happier with Kingdom of Shadows. Bernardo Ruiz’s documentary includes all those familiar elements through news montages and sound bites, as well as coverage of the missing and presumed murdered. […]