Dreyer’s transcendent silent masterwork remains as formally radical, visually overwhelming, and spiritually profound as ever—a film whose eternal close-ups seem to abolish the century between then and now.
Inarritu lays bare the hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement of the Western world in this wildly ambitious meta-satire, with Tom Cruise playing a caricature of an irresponsibly powerful white billionaire caught in a catastrophic global crisis of his own making.
A deliriously exuberant and preposterous work of Tajik cinema, where cars, tanks, trains, and planes collide with trauma and black comedy, Khudojnazarov’s most renowned film recalls the best of Kusturica, as a woman sets out to find the mysterious father of her baby.
The result of a “bad marriage” between provocateur Ken Russell and Oscar-winning screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, this gimmicky, intelligent, and chaotic psychedelic sci-fi horror centers on one scientist’s unrelenting pursuit of an existential, primordial truth.
A thorny family-in-crisis drama, Mungiu’s remarkable Cannes Palme d’Or winner throws questions of faith, parenthood, and social policy into the grinder, and taps into the pulse of what divides many people today, particularly the values we impose on others.
A bleak-as-hell meditation on gender identity and trauma, this Berlinale entry finds unexpected grace amid the spectre of the Thirty Years’ War, religious oppression and misogyny, with Sandra Hüller delivering a virtuoso cross-gender performance.
‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
Emotionally open yet somewhat thematically underwhelming, Chen’s sprawling conclusion to his “Growing Up” trilogy stops short of confronting the Singaporean class tensions lurking beneath its series of unfortunate events, but still ultimately finds quiet resonance in its characters.
‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
A quietly devastating work, this Berlinale award-winner stuns and finds remarkable sensitivity in its treatment of sexual desire, dementia and love, elevated by immersive performances and riveting family dynamics.
