I, Daniel Blake (2016)

I, Daniel Blake was director Ken Loach's second Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner, after The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It's another example of his brand of keenly-observed social realism, with moments that are genuinely touching mixed with moments of righteous indignation. Loach's frequent screenwriter, Paul Laverty, is back, and while he has a tendency to fall back on simplistic, melodramatic moments, Loach is mostly capable of smoothing them out; this turns out to be one of their best collaborations. read more...

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Foxtrot (2018)

Of the batch of 2017 "official Oscar submissions" from various countries — usually a dreary, self-important lot — I can safely say that I liked Samuel Maoz's Foxtrot, from Israel, best. It did not receive a nomination, of course, because it's far edgier, more artistic, and more interesting than the stuff that usually wins. read more...

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From Nowhere (2017)

Director Matthew Newton delivers an earnest drama whose lack of technique is superseded by its highly relevant message, underlining the plight of undocumented teens and the tough realities they face. read more...

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Krisha (2016)

Thanksgiving is always a good time for families in movies to come together and fall apart, but few of them are as penetrating or as vivid as Trey Edward Shults's Krisha. The title character (pronounced "KREE-sha"), played by Shults's real-life aunt, drives up, parks, forgets something in her car, can't find the house, steps in a mud puddle, and arrives on the doorstep, sweaty and out of breath. Long, silvery hair, overweight, and draped in yards of flowing curtain-like garments, she's a mess, apparently recovering from alcoholism, or worse. Even her own son is wary of her presence. It's a tour-de-force performance, needy and unhinged, and barely holding it together. Other members of Shults's family also star, as sympathetic, exasperated versions of themselves, some of them colorful characters, some of them adding to the background chaos. Especially notable is Krisha's mother (and Shult's grandmother), 92 year-old Billie Fairchild, who helps push Krisha around the bend. Shults writes and directs, based on his own short film, and films in a kind of hybrid of long-take realism and nightmarish insanity, plus merry-go-round pinwheels, and car-crash slow-motion. This is boldly independent work, with more than enough painful, searing drama to leave a mark. read more...

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A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)

As Kenji Mizoguchi becomes slightly more and more recognized not only as one of the great masters of Japanese cinema, but as one of the great masters of world cinema, his films have been trickling out into American markets. Made the same year as his much better known Sansho the Bailiff (1954), A Story from Chikamatsu easily ranks as one of the director's greatest, and its appearance on Criterion Blu-ray in 2018 is cause for cheers. read more...

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