Film-Forward

Foreign

Il Futuro

Written & Directed by Alicia Scherson, based on the novel Una Novelita Lumpen by Roberto Bolano Released by Strand Releasing English, Italian, Spanish with English subtitles Italy/Chile/Germany/Spain. 98 min. Not rated With Manuela Martelli, Luigi Ciardo, Alessandro Giallocosta, Nicolas Vaporidis & Rutger Hauer Alicia Scherson’s impressive piece third feature-length film centers around two teenage siblings, […]

Philomena

Directed by Stephen Frears Produced by Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan & Tracey Seaward Written by Coogan & Jeff Pope, based on Martin Sixsmith’s book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee Released by the Weinstein Company UK/USA/France. 98 min. Rated PG-13 With Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Mare Winningham, Barbara Jefford, Ruth McCabe & […]

Blue Is the Warmest Color

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche Written by Kechiche & Ghalya Lacroix, adapted from Le Bleu Est une Couleur Chaude by Julie Maroh Produced by Alcatraz Films, Olivier Thery Lapiney & Laurence Clerc Released by Sundance Selects. French with English subtitles France. 179 min. Rated NC-17 With Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche, Mona Walravens, Jérémie Laheurte […]

It’s Me, It’s Me

Written & Directed by Satoshi Miki Produced by Taro Nagamatsuya, Yuko Shiomaki & Yusuke Wakabayashi Released by Pictures Dept. Japan. 119 min. Not rated With Kazuya Kamenashi, Yuki Uchida & Ryo Kase Viewers may be in for a bumpy ride with this intriguing but enigmatic film. As it begins, it seems solidly in the realm […]

Aftermath

Written & Directed by Wladyslaw Pasikowski Produced by Dariusz Jablonski, Violetta Kaminska & Izabela Wojcik Released by Menemsha Films Polish with English subtitles Poland/Netherlands/Russia/Slovakia. 104 min. Not rated With Maciej Stuhr, Ireneusz Czop, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Zuzana Fialova, Andrzej Mastalerz, Zbigniew Zamachowski & Danuta Szaflarska Aftermath, an intense thriller, exposes the corrosive effect of collective silence and lies […]

The Wall

Written & Directed by Julian Roman Pölsler, based on the novel by Marlen Haushofer Produced by Rainer Kölmel, Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht & Wasiliki Bleser Released by Music Box Films With Martina Gedeck English & German with English subtitles Austria. 109 in. Not rated With Martina Gedeck I find it almost impossible not to compare […]

Toronto 2013 Highlights

An Indian father accompanies his young—and only—son, Siddharth, to an outdoor bus station. He waves goodbye to his smiling boy as the packed bus drives off 200 miles north, where Siddharth has been sent to work in a trolley factory. The boy, nicknamed Siddhu, is supposed to come back a month later for Diwali, but […]

Camille Claudel 1915

Written & Directed by Bruno Dumont Produced by Jean Brehat, Rachid Bouchareb & Muriel Merlin Released by Kino Lorber French with English subtitles France. 97 min. Not Rated With Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent, Robert Leroy, Emmanuel Kauffman & Marion Keller Writer/director Bruno Dumont gives a strongly feminist interpretation to the tragic story of the thwarted […]

Out in the Dark

Directed by Michael Mayer Produced by Lihu Roter & Mayer Written by Mayer & Yael Shafrir Released by Breaking Glass Pictures Hebrew & Arabic with English subtitles Israel/Palestine/USA. 96 min. Not rated With Nicholas Jacob, Michael Aloni, Alon Pdut, Jameel Khouri & Loai Noufi Out in the Dark takes an intensely intimate look beyond the […]