Class war is just another day at the country club in Rafael Manuel's visually witty, quietly devastating debut Filipiñana—my absolute fave from Sundance this year. At an exclusive golf course outside of Manila, the film unfolds in leisurely deadpan tableaux (some have cited Wes Anderson, but I&
Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius' Sundance-winning dramedy How to Divorce During the War is a bitterly comic portrait of brittle relationships and bourgeois complacency that reminded me of Force Majeure. Just as a Vilnius family's breadwinner (Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė) chooses the worst possible moment to inform her
Contained thrillers are a staple of modest-budget filmmaking, those tense stories built around an economical, manageable setting... but who needs another cabin in the woods? A lean, mean chamber mystery that makes a virtue of its claustrophobic confines, Brock Bodell's feature debut Hellcat introduces us to a
In his tender, deeply New York sophomore feature Late Fame, former NYFF director and critic Kent Jones adapts Arthur Schnitzler's 1895 novella (from a ruthlessly funny script by May December's Samy Burch) about a forgotten poet given a second act by a group of young admirers.
A furious DIY fusion of hip-hop spectacle, political commentary and Afrofuturist dystopia, Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II the Terrordome was the first feature directed by a Black woman to be distributed in the UK, except the savage critics couldn't feel its gravity in 1995. Finally getting
Manhunter: The Final Cut is maybe a misnomer, as the 40th anniversary restoration of Michael Mann's unsettling serial-killer classic is essentially his 2003 Director's Cut with minor trims, extended scenes, and a polarizing color grade that mutes the film's iconic '80s neon
With a deadpan melancholy to rival Aki Kaurismäki's oeuvre, Carolina Cavalli's The Kidnapping of Arabella is so tonally precarious that it could be called an absurdist buddy comedy, a coming-of-age drama, or a psychological portrait of delusional regret. A chance encounter convinces an aimless
With the street-level chaos of Kids, the vibey nihilism of Spring Breakers and the analog grime of Trash Humpers, of course Harmony Korine's production shingle (skateboard company?) EDGLRD is behind Barrio Triste. A gang of disaffected teens steals a TV reporter's Betacam to document their
Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee once set out to trace General Sherman's destructive Civil War path to the sea. Then his girlfriend dumped him. Growing richer, smoother and more complex 40 years later, McElwee's hilarious and humane Sherman's March has aged like a fine Carolina
An offbeat hybrid of animation and live action, Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki's autofictional delight Bouchra renders New York City as a CGI-veneered zootopia of anthropomorphized bears, lizards and cows. A lesbian Moroccan filmmaker (presenting as a bipedal coyote, voiced by Bennani) traces her creative blocks and
Somehow evoking mid-century melodramas, Lifetime psychodramas, Showgirls, as well as Elizabeth Berkeley's diet-pill spiral in that "Saved by the Bell" episode, Maddie's Secret is a delicious treat that doesn't follow comedy recipes. In his directorial debut, cult funnyman John Early
Buster Keaton begat Jackie Chan, who begat The Raid, which begat John Wick. You're now caught up on the kinetic lineage of stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker Kenji Tanigaki's Hong Kong action brawler The Furious ("Huo zhe yan"), an electrifying cult classic in the making.