‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’ Review: Chile’s Oscar Hopeful Is a Touching Queer Western
An unconventional coming-of-age story with splashes of Western tropes and queer compassion to spare, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo proves to be an assured debut from Diego Céspedes.
‘Little Trouble Girls’ Review: Catholicism and Coming-of-Age Clash in Slovenia’s Oscar Entry for Best International Feature
Urška Djukić's directorial debut aptly concentrates on the revelatory school trip of a sixteen-year-old Catholic schoolgirl, who struggles to disentangle the clashing feelings of a changing mind and body from her devout, up to this point, untested faith.
‘100 Nights of Hero’ Review: A Colorful, Zany Love Letter to Female Kinship
Starring the likes of Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Charli XCX, and Richard E. Grant, 100 Nights of Hero transports audiences to an offbeat alternate universe where women, all too similarly to our own world, toil to share their own stories under the constraints of male authority.
‘The Chronology of Water’ Review: Kristen Stewart’s Directorial Debut Is a Demanding, Multi-Faceted Treasure
English actress Imogen Poots delivers her most moving performance in an opaque, if not faithful, adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir of the same name.
‘Hamnet’ Review: Chloé Zhao’s Glorious Examination of the Precipice Between Life and Death
Zhao’s latest emotional powerhouse stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, concentrating on the love they share and the tragedy their family faces in the aftermath of their son’s death, which would go on to inform the composition of Shakespeare’s most celebrated play.
‘The Ice Tower’ Review: A Frosty, Hitchcockian Spin on a Classic Fairytale
French filmmaker Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s 2025 Berlinale winner casts a wholly hypnotic spell through its explorations of obsession and belonging.
‘The Balconettes’ Review: Female Friendship Sizzles and Shines in Noémie Merlant’s Genre-Bending Second Feature
Merlant once again re-teams with Céline Sciamma (the film’s co-writer) to serve up an exceptionally feminist genre mashup centered around a trio of longtime girlfriends who rise against the men fighting to control them amid a midsummer heatwave in the South of France.
‘Diciannove’ Review: A Colorful, Kinetic, and Molto Italiano Coming-Of-Age Tale
Filled to the brim with clashing energies reflective of its youthful protagonist, Diciannove powerfully embodies the challenges we experience in the complex position between childhood and adulthood that most of us face at age nineteen.
‘Sleep’ Review: A Picturesque Family Is Woken by an Unseen Evil in Jason Lu’s Debut Horror Flick
Shifting between expectations and subversions of the horror genre, Lu's first-time feature might be scary enough to keep you awake tonight.
‘Eureka’ Review: Lisandro Alonso's Dreamy, Chimeric Survey of Indigeneity in the Americas
The latest work from one of Argentina's most fascinating filmmakers, Eureka subverts the conventions of narrative cinema to explore Indigeneity in a post-colonial world through an elliptical lens that challenges our limits of space and time.
‘The Girl with the Needle’ Review: A Pitch-Black Tale of Working Class Anguish Crafted With Formalist Superiority
Relentless in its quest to portray the horrors of society's castaways, The Girl with the Needle takes inspiration from one of Denmark's most infamous female criminals to build its grimly singular vision.
‘Red Rooms’ Review: Pascal Plante’s Latest Tackles the Shadiest Corners of the Dark Web
Precisely crafted and emboldened by its gruesome subject matter, Red Rooms works with brilliance to understand society's ongoing fascination with violent crime.
‘Red Island’ Review: Youth Blooms as Colonialism Wilts in 1970s Madagascar
In his follow-up to the critically lauded 2017 film BPM (Beats Per Minute), French writer-director Robin Campillo spectacularly excavates his own childhood experiences growing up in post-colonial Africa.
‘Happy Campers’ Review: Amy Nicholson Documents the Final Summer of a Working Class Paradise
Through her subjective and intimate approach to her latest work, the Baltimore native builds a beautifully emotional portrait of place and its inextricable connections to memory and community.
‘Sebastian’ Review: Fiction and Reality Collide in the Latest Work From Queer Filmmaker Mikko Mäkelä
Operating with absorbing levels of sensuality and melancholy–– often simultaneously –– Mäkelä's sophomore effort portrays a solemn and insightful image of contemporary queer culture, as shown through the arresting eyes of the film’s central character.
‘Sisi & I’ Review: Sandra Hüller Stars as the Lady-In-Waiting to One of European History’s Most Iconic Empresses
Through Frauke Finsterwalder's rule-bending arrangement of a historical account, the German director successfully conveys Empress Elisabeth of Austro-Hungary’s essence as a contemporary woman, even 120+ years after her death.
‘Chronicles of a Wandering Saint’ Review: A Luminous, Bucolic Exploration of the Miraculous From Argentina's Tomás Gómez Bustillo
Through his appreciation for the unexplained phenomena that shape our everyday lives, Bustillo weaves a distinctive movie with an underlying compassion that viewers will not quickly forget.
‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’ Review: Growing Up Bites in Ariane Louis-Seize's Satisfying Genre Mash-Up
For her feature debut, the Quebecois filmmaker interweaves her own creative concepts regarding the vampire and coming-of-age genres to assemble a fresh and thoughtful movie full of promise for her future projects behind the camera.