Category Archives: International

#AFF2016 — Women Who Kill, L’Avenir (Things To Come) reviews

September 19, 2016 flawintheiris

Women Who Kill Written and Directed by Ingrid Jungermann | 93 min Morgan (writer/director Jungermann) and Jean (Ann Carr) are ex-lovers who co-host a podcast about female serial killers and live together in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Their morbid fascination with ladies who deal death isn't entirely explained, but it does bind them together in ways…Read More

#AFF2016 — Personal Shopper, American Honey, Operation Avalanche reviews

September 18, 2016 flawintheiris

Personal Shopper Written and Directed by Oliver Assayas | 105 min Personal Shopper is a film that refuses to pay off, but in the most delightful way. Assayas directed Stewart in The Clouds of Sils Maria, and once again creates a character for Kristen Stewart that's in a position of subservience to someone famous, though this…Read More

#AFF2016 — Moonlight, Toni Erdmann reviews

September 17, 2016 flawintheiris

Moonlight Directed by Barry Jenkins | Written by Jenkins and Tarell McCraney | 110 min The story of a boy who becomes a teen who becomes a man, but this isn't a coming-of-age movie. It's a cultural snapshot in three chapters. Little (Alex R. Hibbert) is a black boy living in Miami. He's beaten up…Read More

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie review — It’s Sweet, Sweetie Darling

August 3, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Mandie Fletcher | Written by Jennifer Saunders | 91 min | ▲▲▲▲△ It's been a summer of managed expectations. Most of the blockbusters haven't delivered on their promise, instead serving up some variation on grim, vacuous, or just-OK entertainment. This has a lot to do with why I so enjoyed the big screen debut…Read More

Hevn (Revenge) review — Expertly chilled Norwegian drama

June 9, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Kjersti Steinsbø | Written by Steinsbø and Ingvar Ambjørnsen | 100 min | ▲▲▲▲△ A woman named Andrea is, in fact, Rebekka (Siren Jørgensen). She takes on a fake identity as a travel writer in order to track down a hotelier, Morten (Frode Winther), a man with a secret. She has good reason to kill him with…Read More

A Bigger Splash review — Trashy times in the sun

June 1, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Written by David Kajganich and Alain Page, inspired by the film La Piscine | 125 min | ▲▲▲△△ Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is a rock star, an aesthetic cross between Chrissie Hynde and David Bowie. She's just had surgery on her voice, and her doctors insist she shouldn't speak. She and…Read More

High-Rise review — Pitch black class comedy

May 26, 2016 flawintheiris

Directed by Ben Wheatley | Written by Amy Jump, based on the novel by JG Ballard | 119 min |▲▲▲△△ Dogs have a rough time of it in High-Rise—injured, drowned, and eaten. Though, by the film's end, you might start to think they were the lucky ones. This is a pitch black comedy, a class…Read More

A Hologram For The King review — Pleasantly meandering dramedy of midlife rediscovery

May 1, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Tom Tykwer, adapting the book by Dave Eggers | 98 min | on Netflix I've been dubious of recent movies where Americans go to the Middle East to find themselves, a dustier Eat Pray Love formula through a skewed western lens. At its best we get something like A Mighty Heart, and at…Read More

Youth review — The Artist as an Old Man

January 14, 2016 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino | 124 min | ▲▲▲△△ Sorrentino's last film, the sumptuous Italian drama The Great Beauty, was something to see (it had everything from orgies to a giraffe) but a little hard to care about. It featured Toni Servillo as a 65-year-old writer unable to come to terms with the…Read More

Top 10 of 2015

January 10, 2016 flawintheiris

Thanks for checking out my list of the best movies of 2015. It's taken me a little while to feel confident assembling this list, but having now seen late arrivals The Hateful Eight and The Revenant, I'm gonna commit. I may to add a couple more to the list if Anomalisa and 45 Days are as good as…Read More