This inspirational Oscar-winning documentary shows us that nature is our best teacher—that we are fully capable of adapting and changing for the better if only we had the wisdom to do so.
Spielberg’s overdrawn drama is a safe if underwhelming adaptation of Alice Walker’s landmark novel.
It’s not exactly a special film and gets bogged down by a narrative that is far more predictable than you think, but there’s a certain charm to how this alcohol-meets-schoolteachers drama plays out, backed by an indelible turn from Mads Mikkelsen.
A teenage girl and her parents who are far-left terrorists on the run are the focus of this promising and largely riveting feature debut that combines coming-of-age tropes with crime and politics, while at the same time turning some of these conventions upside-down.
It gets dull after a while, but the context—a Soviet fabricated show trial ordered by Stalin to frame and prosecute ‘anti-communists’ in the eyes of the public—is still an eye-opening look at character assassination on a national, ideological level, nearly a century ago.
Another good but not great murder mystery from Chabrol featuring the second outing of his snarky detective in a tale about immoralities.
Women meet politics as they bravely fight against rampant sexual assaults and for a more progressive country in this intimate home video-style, if sometimes unfocused, documentary about the aftermath of the Cairo Revolution.
Edited entirely from restored archival footage of Stalin’s state funeral, this is a cinema of profound sadness and a towering achievement from one of the great screen chroniclers of Soviet history.
This intense and highly-satisfying three-hour chamber piece revolving around the gathering of an extended family in an apartment is a masterclass in the rigours of acting and blocking.
Not as purely cinematic as some of his greatest works, but Ray manages to invoke feelings of introspection as a movie star gets a reality check from strangers—and fans—he encounters on a train.
