Written, Produced & Directed by Asghar Farhadi Released by Sony Pictures Classics Iran. 123 min. Rated PG-13 Farsi with English subtitles With Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Sarina Farhadi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Sareh Bayat, & Shahab Hosseini A Separation opens with a marriage in crisis. Testifying testily, the wife explains to a judge that she wants to […]
We all know that countless titles are released for the home video market every year—in the genre category alone there’s too much for any individual to track, including me. Or should I say “especially me” as I tend to focus my energies on theatrical releases. So just in case you’re like me, here are some […]
Written & Directed by Cédric Klapisch Produced by Bruno Levy Released by Sundance Selects English & French with English subtitles France. 109 min. Not rated With Karin Viard & Gilles Lellouche Cédric Klapisch’s boisterous films cram many characters and storylines into two (or so) hours. His last effort, Paris, was even more kaleidoscopic than usual, […]
Directed by Rachid Bouchareb Produced by Bouchareb and Jean Bréhat Written by Bouchareb, Zoé Galeron & Olivier Lorelle Released by Cinema Libre Studio UK/France/Algeria. 90 min. Not Rated In English, French & Arabic with English subtitles With Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyaté, Sami Bouajila & Roschdy Zem The events of 7/7—the day terrorist attacks struck public […]
Written & Directed by Takeshi Kitano Produced by Masayuki Mori & Takio Yoshida Released by Magnet Releasing Japanese with English subtitles Japan. 109 min. Rated R With Beat Takeshi, Kippei Shiina, Ryo Kase, Tomokazu Miura, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi & Tetta Sugimoto The bleakly funny Japanese gangster drama Outrage came out in its home country […]
Directed by Steve McQueen Produced by Iain Canning & Emile Sherman Written by Steve McQueen & Abi Morgan Released by Fox Searchlight UK. 99 min. Rated NC-17 With Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale & Nicole Beharie Earnestly somber, Shame arrives with a lot of baggage, namely an envelope-pushing amount of sex and nudity. (The […]
Written & Directed by Michel Hazanavicius Produced by Thomas Langmann Released by the Weinstein Company France/USA. 100 min. Rated PG-13 With Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Beth Grant & John Goodman Studded with easy-to-spot film references, the black-and-white silent film The Artist is the type of film that […]
Written & Directed by Bertrand Bonello Produced by Bonello & Kristina Larsen Released by Sundance Selects French with English subtitles France. 125 min. Not rated With Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette, Jasmine Trinca, Adèle Haenel, Noémie Lvovsky, Alice Barnole & Iliana Zabeth Set in a brothel at the turn of the 20th century Paris, this methodical […]
The just-concluded Other Israel Film Festival showcased notable films by and about the 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Arab (Christian, Muslim, Bedouin, and Druze) and other minorities, like migrant workers and immigrants. (Some of the films from previous editions, and other festival activities, are also streaming online on demand at OtherIsraelOnDemand.org.) Including U.S. […]