“Beetlejuice” is Tim Burton’s surreal farce about ghosts Adam and Barbara enlisting the chaotic Betelgeuse to scare away new, macabre homeowners.
Martin Scorsese narrates a documentary exploring the revolutionary films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Their work, from The Spy in Black to Peeping Tom, significantly influenced modern cinema.
Aki Kaurismäki’s “Rikos ja Rangaistus” updates Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” to contemporary Finland, exploring ideological isolation and dystopian gloom.
The Astronaut’s Lover follows Pedro’s return to Argentina and his renewed bond with Maxi, leading to a playful and ultimately revealing summer. Berger portrays love’s universal force amid natural settings and gentle dialogue.
A Southern Italian family’s move to Milan leads to tragic consequences as they face modernity and individualism. Visconti’s film critiques socio-economic changes in Italy.
“Touch” by Baltasar Kormákur explores the melancholy of lost youth and first love through the journey of Kristofer, who searches for his vanished love, Miko. The film’s emotional potential is hindered by a sterile presentation that lacks genuine sentiment.
Michael Winterbottom’s eclectic films explore reality through diverse genres and themes. His latest work, “Shoshana,” blends thriller, melodrama, and historical realism, depicting 1930s-40s Palestine and examining the impact of violence on those who seek peace.
“When Evil Lurks” blends black humor and grotesque elements, reviving 1980s horror with a grand guignol style, offering a chilling, anarchic experience.
Serebrennikov’s Limonov impresses visually but fails to capture the complex political life of Ėduard Limonov, reducing him to a clichéd mad genius
Fly Me to the Moon by Greg Berlanti humorously tackles truth and deception in NASA’s lunar missions, featuring a love story between Kelly Jones and Cole Davis.
From China, a misty and autumnal film that declares its noir roots from the very first images, hypnotizing the viewer with a web of visual suggestions.
A young nun, played by Sydney Sweeney, becomes pregnant despite being a virgin. This religious horror film follows genre conventions but sows unease.
A screwball comedy set within the true (or presumed) story of the moon landing: a partially successful endeavor, with more than a few doubts about the chemistry between Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.
The hurricane isn’t just a special effect; the catastrophe impacts people. Lee Isaac Chung talks about climate change without naming it, denounces the exploitation of tragedy, and highlights the need for a supportive network.
The fate of ancient China rests on the shoulders of one young girl, who must find the last remaining dragon egg and fulfill her destiny.
Get Out successfully uses horror to expose dominant white narratives and societal decay. Peele’s sharp and straightforward style effectively highlights the complexities of racial dynamics and rebellion.
Fuga in Normandia moves viewers with real D-Day survivors and a tear-jerking finale. Jackson and Caine’s performances bring heartfelt authenticity.
A film of extreme seriousness, distress, and apocalypse where the ecological parable gives way to existing horror with no escape. Unappealing to climate change deniers, Acid by Just Philippot constructs a gripping tension that leaves no room for respite.
Just Philippot’s film on acid rain devastating France is a nightmare of our time: it knows well that today’s climate is the real horror movie.
Miss Violence starts with potential but devolves into gratuitous shock value, lacking the subtlety and depth needed for its disturbing themes. The result is a disappointing and irritating experience.
Redundant but overall effective, A Quiet Place II by John Krasinski shifts its genre blend from sci-fi western to sci-fi on the road, multiplying dangers and characters.
Inside Out 2 explores Riley’s puberty with new emotions but misses the depth of the original. Visually stunning, it’s a global box office hit.
Thriller-horror skillfully built around the theme of “fear of the neighbor,” A Quiet Place by John Krasinski is a masterful and tense ticking time bomb.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” tries to combine horror and melodrama, focusing on a terminally ill woman during an alien invasion in New York. Despite Lupita Nyong’o’s strong performance, the film’s excessive sentimentality undermines its horror aspects.
Green Border reveals the tragic plight of refugees at the Belarus-Poland border, exposing Europe’s moral void and contrasting the treatment of Ukrainian and non-European refugees.
With her second film “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat delivers a strange blend of “Death Becomes Her” and “Society,” with hints of “Tetsuo” and a good dose of irony in a comedy that flirts with body horror (or vice versa).
With The Box, Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly revisits the popular science fiction atmosphere of The Twilight Zone, crafting a film that balances new technologies with a sense of nostalgia.
Hit Man by Richard Linklater tells the story of Gary, a philosophy professor and undercover agent, who pretends to be a hitman. The film artfully navigates themes of identity and deception, blending various genres with a playful and engaging style.
Perhaps it was the title that impressed (and misled) some Catholic critics, but Soderbergh’s debut (Palme d’Or at Cannes 1989) is far from being a film of gratuitous and trivial transgressions. It foreshadows a present dominated and influenced by the explosion of social media.
Criticized by Catholics and politicians, banned in Spain until the start of the post-Franco Transition but awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes: more than religious, it is a visionary and political film, never blasphemous, with a sharp and secular spiritual aura.
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