Tautly-executed, and at times conveying a trepid sense of hopelessness, Ripstein’s work tackles a reformed ex-criminal’s futile attempt in escaping a corrupt system of intimidation and control.
A man in severe debt refuses to sell his family mansion in this deliberately-paced Sri Lankan film that deals with the inner turmoil of a person caught between misguided superstition and the prospect of personal redemption.
De Leon’s madcap comedy is a delirious genre-bending piece that sees Japanese yakuza and Chinese gangsters cross paths with a group of Filipino youth caught up in a drug syndicate.
An effortless if restrained effort by Mungiu that compellingly captures the state of Romanian society through one father’s series of moral dilemmas.
‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
Eco-‘terrorism’ is explored in this tense and pulsating thriller about a group of environmental activists planning to bomb an oil pipeline in Texas as they try to find a precarious balance between agency and morality.
De Leon doesn’t hide his unabashedly dreamy approach to the coming-of-age romantic drama, as a college student becomes smitten by a woman, changing each other’s outlook in life.
Visionary in the worst possible way, Folman’s live-action/animation hybrid packs in so many ideas about time, legacy and existence that it all seems so muddled, uneven and uninvolving.
At nearly 160 mins, Zhang’s latest does overstay its welcome, but as a murky murder mystery with twists and turns, it is finely executed and entertaining.
Shinkai’s new anime is largely compelling, though sometimes bogged down by its melodramatic excess and narrative contrivances.
Eternality Tan 