Dupieux’s outstanding single-location film works as a sardonic meta-filmic commentary on art and performance as an audience member with a gun takes a theatre show hostage for producing ‘boring work’.
Grand yet intimate, this Cannes Un Certain Regard award winner, about a man who strikes up a friendship with a black stray dog in a small town, mostly avoids overt sentimentalism in its portrayal of changing times in rural China.
Risi elevates the Italian comedy to stratospheric heights in this absolute classic of a buddy road movie with two exceptional performances from Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant, as it deals with themes of freedom, hedonism and consequences.
While its plotting might seem too ‘neat’ to really satisfy, this deliberately-paced serial killer flick balances well the ‘procedural’ and ‘occult’ aspects as a greenhorn FBI special agent must solve a series of decades-long murders.
Modest but effective, and unexpectedly moving, this documentary on Taylor Swift gives us the broad strokes of a human being who is always trying to prove herself through her music artistry and compassion for others.
Possibly one of the finest ‘body horror’ films of the post-2000s era, Fargeat’s sophomore film takes on sexism and ageism in the entertainment industry with a middle finger so pointed that the violence and gore become saliently and nihilistically rewarding.
Kaurismaki adapts Shakespeare for the dog-eat-dog world of industrialising Finland with this decent black-and-white revenge noir filled with moments of absurdist humour and conniving tactics.
Maldoror’s only completed narrative feature about a woman trying to locate her imprisoned husband is a work of Angolan solidarity, made at a time when a war of independence was waged against their Portuguese oppressors.
Erice is back after 31 years with a compelling but somewhat unconvincing work that is part mystery, part love letter to cinema, and a meditation on mortality, old age and the passing of time, as an unresolved case of a missing actor is reopened after many decades.
‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
