Film-Forward

Two Ukrainian films are reminders that the current situation in Eastern Europe isn’t unprecedented at all, but history sadly repeating itself.

Not an easy film to watch, this dark satire is challenging, violent, gruesome, and maybe even necessary.

The film nimbly becomes a thriller without shedding its established rhythm. Before you know it, the tone has turned uncomfortably ominous. 

Andrea Riseborough, who is practically a regular at SXSW, has arguably never been better.

Director Alison Otto exposes the double life of an unassuming middle-aged couple responsible for the theft of a Willem de Kooning painting, now estimated to be worth $160 million.

What matters is the fight itself, and not just the results.

Werner Herzog splashes much-needed cold water on the idea that humans can simply colonize another planet if/when Earth becomes uninhabitable.

A claustrophobic sense of entrapment pervades Hany Abu-Assad’s Palestine-based political thriller.

Watching the ways the prison-bound relationships vary in their complications, compromises, and resolutions is one of the more moving aspects of director Sebastian Meise’s film.