The new film from Anthony Chen takes a minute to find its rhythm. For the first hour or so of its admittedly substantial runtime, I couldn’t help but wonder if an LLM, prompted to make the most normcore script imaginable, would be able to conjure a story of such modest simplicity. Stick with it a […]
The post Berlinale Review: We Are All Strangers Channels Edward Yang to Kitschy But Compelling Ends first appeared on The Film Stage.
To belong to the diaspora is to inhabit a paradox: a state of in-betweenness, neither fully inside or outside one’s home and adoptive countries. Films trying to map that condition also tend to feel somewhat “suspended,” populated as they are by characters grappling with a double consciousness—“either I’m nobody,” Derek Walcott captured that limbo in […]
The post Berlinale Review: Alain Gomis’ Dao is a Riveting Family Saga first appeared on The Film Stage.
Moulding cruel or nihilistic characters into darkly attractive protagonists requires a deceptively delicate touch. We’ve grown so used to seeing it done effortlessly that a movie like Rosebush Pruning can perhaps be some useful reminder of how difficult it is to pull off. The latest from Brazilian sensualist Karim Aïnouz (of Futuro Beach and The Invisible […]
The post Berlinale Review: Rosebush Pruning is a Maximalist, Muddled Attempt at Cinematic Transgression first appeared on The Film Stage.
From its humble beginnings as a scrappy viral web series nearly two decades ago, Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s Groundhog Day-esque mission of attempting to book a show at Toronto’s Rivoli Theatre has now, two TV seasons on, reached the big screen in truly miraculous fashion. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie sets the […]
The post “We Cut 95% of It Out”: Matt Johnson on Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Constant Re-Editing, and Season 3 first appeared on The Film Stage.
Every so often Criterion upgrades a title so old it is, in effect, new again. Case in point: Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog, first put on DVD around the time this year’s college graduates were born, is coming to 4K this May. If it’s not quite one of his lesser-known works—certainly not on the same level […]
The post The Criterion Collection’s May Lineup Includes Akira Kurosawa, Bob Fosse, and Joachim Trier on 4K first appeared on The Film Stage.
After Jane Schoenbrun’s haunting, astounding second feature I Saw the TV Glow topped our list of the best films of 2024, we’ve been counting down the days for the release of their follow-up. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, has now been set for an August 7, […]
The post First Look at Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Set for August Release first appeared on The Film Stage.
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. Film at Lincoln CenterA Diane Keaton tribute features films by Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, and Francis Ford Coppola on 35mm. Roxy CinemaValentine’s Day at the Roxy brings 35mm prints of Romeo + Juliet, The Brown Bunny, Crash, and Twilight. Museum of the Moving ImageA massive […]
The post NYC Weekend Watch: Diane Keaton, The Brown Bunny, 2001 In Cinema & More first appeared on The Film Stage.
Cashiers Du Cinéma, the madcap comic zine that examines the lives of movie theater employees, has programmed a new ten-film series kicking off at BAM this Friday. The series includes arthouse standard-bearers like Goodbye, Dragon Inn and Cinema Paradiso, but also oddities like the ’80s slasher Blood Theater and The Projectionist, a comedy that includes […]
The post Cashiers Du Cinéma Editors on Programming Their BAM Series and Celebrating Cinema Workers first appeared on The Film Stage.
Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, a guiding figure in the L.A. Rebellion movement with such films as Bush Mama and Ashes and Embers, is returning with his first work in nearly two decades, one itself three decades in the making. Black Lions – Roman Wolves, spanning around nine hours, is described as a treatise on Ethiopian […]
The post Legendary Director Haile Gerima Returns in Exclusive Trailer for Black Lions – Roman Wolves, Premiering at Berlinale first appeared on The Film Stage.
It’s rare for a film as good as First Light to slip through the cracks of the major festivals. This debut feature from Filipino-Australian director James J. Robinson premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival last August before traveling to Marrakech in December and IFFR last week. The story begins in earnest, following an elderly nun […]
The post Rotterdam Review: First Light is a Calm, Confident Debut first appeared on The Film Stage.
