Richard Linklater’s confectionary romcom tears the house down at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Paradoxically breezy yet unpredictable, Hit Man is a full-blooded rejuvenation of its genre, buoyed by volcanic chemistry and capital “M” movie star performances from Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. A movie about self-actualization and the moral chasms we pave over, it’s sexy, funny, and just a little twisted. Minor spoilers ahead…

My coverage of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival begins with possibly the most horrifying — and masterful — film of 2023. A picturesque idyll conjured by history’s most monstrous as hell seeps around all its corners, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a haymaker display of a filmmaker’s restraint and precision — a masterwork in a career full of them. Minor spoilers ahead…

Almost two decades after Zhang Yimou’s masterwork To Live, Chinese author Yu Hua’s prose returns to Cannes in a different mode through Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows, the filmmaker’s third consecutive feature to premiere at Cannes since 2020. Eschewing the sweeping canvas of To Live for a mesmerizing, intractable noir, Only The River Flows centers on a mysterious murder in a riverside town, the lackadaisical bureaucracy surrounding the case, and the detective obsessed with solving the killing.

In 2013, filmmaker Anthony Chen’s first feature, Ilo Ilo, won the coveted Caméra d’Or at Cannes. Centered around the inseparable bond between a 10-year-old Singaporean boy and his Filipina nanny, Chen’s full-length debut deployed a specific lens — a family weathering the 1997 Asian financial crisis — to tell a universal story exploring the nooks and crannies of our shared humanity. Flash forward to exactly a decade later, Chen makes his triumphant return to Cannes (in the Un Certain Regard section) with The Breaking Ice, a moving, humanist snapshot of China’s lost youths told through a ships-in-the-night friendship.

“The closer you look, the harder you fall.” Park Chan-wook cross-pollinates a police procedural with a swooning, femme fatale romance and it’s every bit as good as you think it will be. Swirling around two lost souls navigating a web of murder, deceit, and desire to desperately cling to their perverse affair, Decision to Leave is a sensual puzzle box — and one of the year’s best films. Tang Wei is sensational. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin, a darkly comedic portrait of an imploding friendship amidst mounting pettiness. Men and their decimated kinships unraveled upon the screen, richly textured and frequently uproarious, it’s McDonagh at his best as he explores evaporating bonds, crushing loneliness, and enmity in grotesque escalation. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are unsurprisingly in top form in what will likely be my favorite film of the year. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of notable films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for 2022’s TIFF: Devotion, The Whale, My Policeman, and Sick. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s SXSW Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of great films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for SXSW: The Lost City, Deadstream, Jethica, and The Cellar. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my coverage of 2021’s Sundance Film Festival! Far away from the hustle and bustle of its usual Park City home, this year’s festival - like many before it - has been transformed into a virtual experience due to COVID-19, but that doesn’t diminish the caliber of its offerings. This year’s festival sees a variety of special film events, such as a robust short film program, a wide selection of genre showings, and gala presentations. This year marks my first year as accredited press at Sundance, and I’m so excited to be able to review a selection from the festival. You can find my entire coverage here.

Our Sundance coverage continues with a review for Jerrod Carmichael’s directorial debut, On the Count of Three. With strong performances and impressive construction, the film is deft at combining melancholy with levity, but not all of its humor lands. Our contributor DarkSkyLady reviews the film. Trigger warning: discussions of suicide/attempted suicide. Minor spoilers ahead…

Our Sundance coverage continues with a review for Sion Sono’s gonzo, post-apocalyptic Western, Prisoners of the Ghostland. A refreshing respite from a festival full of heavier fare, the Japanese auteur forms a marriage of his cult sensibilities with the American master of cult performances: Nicolas Cage. A whirlwind of wild violence, candy-colored dystopia, and a plot light on logic but heavy with style, Prisoners of the Ghostland is a cult classic in the making. Contributor Valerie Thompson reviews the film. Minor spoilers ahead…

Our Sundance coverage continues with a review for Rodney Ascher’s documentary on simulation theory. A film that amplifies all of Ascher’s most grating tendencies as a documentarian, A Glitch in the Matrix takes the tedious navel-gazing of Room 237 - Ascher’s cult account on hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining - and cranks it up to eleven. Largely ignoring a storied bibliography of research, philosophy, and the logical complexities on the subject of simulation theory, A Glitch in the Matrix instead finds satisfaction in a glib slinging of memes and crackpot theories. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to the Strange Harbors coverage of the virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Siân Heder’s heartfelt curtain-raiser kicks off this year’s program, a radiantly warm tale of a teenage girl navigating the tension-filled territory between individuality and the bonds of family. An American adaptation of the French dramedy La famille Béllier, Coda wears its coming-of-age tropes on its sleeve, but its confident construction and tender performances strike at the heart of what makes convention so effective. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my coverage of 2021’s Sundance Film Festival! Far away from the hustle and bustle of its usual Park City home, this year’s festival - like many before it - has been transformed into a virtual experience due to COVID-19, but that doesn’t diminish the caliber of its offerings. This year’s festival sees a variety of special film events, such as a robust short film program, a wide selection of genre showings, and gala presentations. This year marks my first year as accredited press at Sundance, and I’m so excited to be able to review a selection from the festival. You can find my entire coverage here.

Vanessa Kirby shines in Kornél Mundruczó’s and Kata Wéber’s Pieces of a Woman, a devastating drama that details the act of living in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. The film finds considerable buoyancy in its awards-worthy performances, but struggles to escape the shadow of its searing single-take opening scene. Unable to commit to its most powerful thread, Pieces of a Woman flounders in its scattered and callow narratives. Minor spoilers below…

My coverage of 2020’s Toronto International Film Festival begins here! One of the most prestigious film festivals, TIFF is a major predictor of Academy Awards success, screening some of the best films the world has to offer. From documentaries to dramas to its horror-leaning Midnight Madness slate, TIFF is a cinematic experience unlike any other. This year marks my first year as accredited press, and I’m so excited to be able to review a selection of films from the festival. You can find my entire coverage here. All reviews in viewing order…