This Canadian drama is directed by, written by, and stars first-time director Agam Darshi. It’s a labor of love about a 30-something woman who takes care of her sick father while trying to become a writer. Mona (the character) comes from an immigrant Indian family, and she is proudly the black sheep of the bunch. […]
What does a filmmaker do when you’re banned from making movies? For their safety, they might move abroad or switch professions altogether. For director Jafar Panahi, it means doing things differently. Taxi was made in the titular vehicle, with a camera simply placed on the dashboard as Panahi poses as a driver. It’s a simple […]
Structured more like a network procedural than a gritty streaming miniseries, the TV adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer feels easy, even nostalgic, to watch. The formula is simple: in every episode, Mickey handles a new case (most of them wrongful convictions against people on the fringe), all while dealing with a larger, more complicated case […]
It’s chilly this summer with vengeful spirits, cursed hands and double pupils in the horror-comedy Dark Gathering. Keitarō Gentōga has always attracted ghosts, and despite his fear, he is ready to socialize again after two years. Unlucky for him, his first student as a tutor is Yayoi Hôzuki, his best friend’s cousin obsessed with finding […]
The curious link between smell and memory forms the basis of this intriguing — albeit uneven — exploration of the supernatural ties between mother and child. Eight-year-old Vicky (Sally Dramé), daughter of the unhappily married Joanne (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Jimmy (Moustapha Mbengue), has a sense of smell so fine-tuned she can identify a catalog of […]
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By retelling a vital chapter of the civil rights movement from the perspective of an entire community—and not just through individual prominent figures—Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power emphasizes the need for collective action, and what it really means to fight for equal rights. And through highly articulate interviewees who’ve all maintained a […]
Hit Man is many things—a romance, neo-noir, comedy, and thriller. And though it sometimes feels like it doesn’t quite reach its full potential in all those areas, it’s hard not to be blown away by Powell’s Rolodex of characters and his palpable chemistry with Arjona. The story itself isn’t as sturdy as I hoped it […]
I’ve always thought that The Beatles’ songmaking process would be something close to magical. But this documentary proves that it’s anything but—creating music, like any artistic endeavor, is like pulling teeth. It’s painful and raw, but once done, it can also feel like the biggest relief in the world. And Get Back, which Jackson described […]
The animation can sometimes be distracting, but for the most part, The Billionaire is a well-edited docuseries about a deeply intriguing affair. The use of real-life tape recordings (secretly made by the Bettencourts’ butler) lends it an authentic air, while the re-enactments remain tastefully shot throughout. They’re accurate but anonymous, and never cheesy in the […]
Compared to all the meaty and daring shows coming out right now, Primo is relatively lighthearted fare. Its easygoing, PG humor hews closer to network rather than cable television, but the series isn’t without its merits. Primo is candid and charming as it tackles the realities of school, family, and work. It takes a somewhat […]
Although Who We Are is essentially a professionally recorded masterclass interspersed with additional interviews, it only emphasizes Jeffery Robinson’s skill as an orator and his compassion as a teacher. In a clear and levelheaded manner, he lays out how even the historical documents that formed the blueprint of the United States are exclusionary in key […]
By remaining totally committed to its quiet, drama-free, observational style of documentary filmmaking, Mr. Bachmann and His Class ends up teaching us a whole lot about the way we view educational spaces and difficult students as well. While the titular German teacher is mainly there to teach language, the way he patiently handles disagreement and […]
We Own This City is a six-part miniseries following the ins and outs of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force. Hailed by critics as the “spiritual successor to The Wire” (both shows were developed by David Simon), the gritty crime drama works as a smart and gripping exposé not just of the Baltimore […]
It’s a bold move, centering a drama around a creature as docile as a donkey, but EO pulls it off without ever leaning on the crutch of CGI. Instead, the film makes ingenious use of a hundred-year-old film technique: the Kuleshov effect. By splicing the image of the titular donkey’s placid, expressionless face against visual […]
The success of Average Joe’s humor lies in showing how ordinary people realistically react to extraordinary events (in this case, being hunted down by the Russian mafia). Joe and his friends are blue-collar workers who barely make ends meet, so it makes sense that they won’t immediately know expert self-defense. They’re no John Wick, they […]
Small Things Like These is the kind of film that doesn’t have a grand resolution, a dramatic climax, or a widespread shift that would change the world forever. What happens might not even change the country, or the town Bill Furlong lives in. But that doesn’t mean the film is unimportant. While Cillian Murphy masterfully […]
Even within the first two episodes of the Japanese reality series Is She the Wolf? (a spin-off of parent show Who Is the Wolf?), it admittedly isn’t very clear how the premise works. At least one female contestant in this pool of 22- to 32-year-olds—all of whom happen to be performers of some kind—has been […]
One woman’s main character syndrome reaches shocking lows in this vicious Norwegian satire of social-media-era narcissists. Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and her artist boyfriend Thomas (Eirik Sæther) are a deeply toxic couple who torture everyone around them with their constant, petty one-upmanship. When he lands a flashy magazine spread, though, Signe’s usual tactics for slyly […]
A murder mystery on one hand and a supernatural dramedy on the other, School Spirits is an engaging teen series that recalls plenty of past movies and shows before it. Like Ghost and The Lovely Bones, the protagonist is a murder victim attempting to solve the mystery of her death, and like the BBC/CBS show […]
In between his own Shakespeare adaptations, filmmaker Kenneth Branagh created this black-and-white comedy drama about a group of aspiring actors staging their own Hamlet production. Who would do Hamlet, of all plays, on Christmas? Apparently these losers will, mostly because they don’t have anything else. They haven’t gotten other opportunities to perform. But as these […]
A healthy mix of despair and self-deprecation has always been Bo Burnham’s signature, but Inside takes it to the next level. It’s a deconstructed film, rather than a simple one-night special; a one-man-show that constantly undercuts itself. Even more so, it sabotages its own immersive qualities and explores the depths of self-loathing by turning oneself […]
Based on a true story, Darin J. Sallam’s controversial debut feature Farha is, at heart, a brutal coming-of-age film. Set in 1948, the film is about a girl who gets locked into her family’s storeroom at the start of the Nakba, the Palestinian Catastrophe. Sallam’s choice to limit most of the film’s perspective to that […]
Best known for its cute characters, Sanrio has partnered with Netflix to deliver a children’s adventure mini-series centered on their laziest egg yolk Gudetama. If you’d like to know how an egg like Gudetama can exist, this show conceives of a world where once out of their shells, all eggs have sentience, from regular chicken […]
A road trip movie with an unknown destination, Hit the Road plays with our expectations by avoiding any obvious questions we might have, and making us focus on the real important things. Informed by the censorship and persecution faced by critics of Iran’s government—including director Panah Panahi’s own filmmaker father, Jafar—the film places more focus […]
After having just lost her sister Holly, Sam (Bridget Everett) is in a bit of a midlife crisis. Work feels meaningless, singing doesn’t bring as much joy as it used to, and her family isn’t exactly the most supportive bunch out there. When a colleague introduces Sam to his friends (a lively, welcoming group of […]
A documentary told entirely through animated avatars can be a hard sell, but instead of playing into the expected jokes, director Joe Hunting takes this digital environment extremely seriously, and that makes all the difference. He doesn’t downplay how absurd it is to see what are essentially 3D characters going on dates and having bellydance […]
In Luzzu, tradition and modernity — plus principles and necessity — come crashing up against each other like waves in a raging storm. Trying to navigate his way through the tempest is Jesmark (Jesmark Scicluna), a Maltese fisherman proudly descended from a long family line of the profession. But Jesmark’s work — and his identity, […]
The single-take conceit of this high-camp whodunnit set in the world of competitive hairdressing is not without its knots. Without the charity of a cut, it falls on the screenplay to pull us through the film’s murder mystery in real-time, and the result contains more than a few inorganic segues, despite the cast’s best efforts […]
This six-episode whodunit isn’t breaking any new ground, but it’s entertaining and engaging, especially with the rebellious Lidia Poët (Matilda De Angelis) as the lead. She’s smart and determined but not wholly immune to weaknesses—a sort of Enola Holmes for the more mature crowd. Her story is also a timeless reminder of the uphill battle […]
Despite their rising popularity, K-dramas have sustained a reputation for being, at times, too sentimental for their own good. Extraordinary Attorney Woo is not exempt from that tendency, but when it does shoot for schmaltz, it makes sure to aim right at your heart. Thanks to clever twists and moving performances across the board, Extraordinary […]
Bad Axe is an intimate documentary that follows the Sievs, a tight-knit family that runs a restaurant in the city of Bad Axe, Michigan. When the rise of COVID restrictions and racist hate groups put their business at risk, the Sievs try to hold on to each other while also carefully, in their own way, […]
If you’ve watched any World War II film, the plot of this historical drama would be familiar. A boy grows up not fully understanding the danger he’s in, and stays shielded until he meets a wounded British soldier. Of course, he gets into a situation way over his head. However, we won’t deny this familiar […]
Prayers for the Stolen takes more time to observe life in its rural town, than to showcase the action and violence inflicted by the cartels that pass by. It’s a needed perspective. This move drives home how long these cartels were left unaddressed, as the women of the town have gotten used to the danger […]
