France
In our second review from SXSW 2019, Hazem Fahmy reviews The Beach Bum – a fantasy with no real-life application.
A spiritual forerunner to modern coming-of-age films like Eighth Grade and Lady Bird, Peppermint Soda is a charming glimpse at two teenage girls growing up.
Mektoub My Love is one of the most self indulgent films in recent memory, with the threat of a sequel likely to kill off the director’s career altogether.
Carried by the weight of Willem Dafoe’s performance, At Eternity’s Gate is not a bad film, but it is not an outstanding one either.
Paris, Texas readily evokes a bit of the ruggedness of the Old West, reflecting the degradation of this vast country as much as the austere beauty.
Hiroshima Mon Amour deals with the aftermath of a war, but primarily focuses on two peoples’ romance, which inspired future French New Wave directors.
A cautionary tale of what happens when familial love and romantic love cross paths, Les Parents Terribles deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Cocteau’s other masterpieces.
Rodin portrays its titular character as a fiery genius who is much better interacting with lumps of clay than he is with human beings. For an artist biopic, this is both predictable and exhausting.
On numerous conscious and subconscious levels, Jean Vigo’s Zero for Conduct is one of the most honest examinations of humanity and human society yet made in cinematic form. That is Anarchic Cinema.
Climax is an oddly boring affair, that shows Gaspar Noe has little of substance to offer when divorced from more offensive subject matter.
The English language debut of iconic French director Claire Denis is thematically dense and transgressive, designed to provoke intense debate.
As much as Ulysses & Mona can be a pleasant watch, and as much as Issa and Cantona gel with each other, it lacks a solid foundation.
Memoir of War is at its best when focusing on the inner life of its protagonist – but even she can’t prevent it from feeling unnecessarily drawn-out.
Less a documentary, more an arthouse examination of a tennis great, Julien Faraut’s John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection is a true original.
It’s been almost a decade since the release of Agnès Varda’s last film, and even though her newest entry, Faces Places, is only slight, it’s still completely worth the wait.