Ralph Fiennes is exceptional as a cardinal who must oversee the selection of a new Pope as skeletons in the closet threaten to derail the voting process, in Berger’s taut ‘mystery-thriller’ that some might feel too highly calibrated in its storytelling.
With virtuoso filmmaking on display, Ruizpalacios’ mesmerising fourth feature creates explosive drama out of the inner workings of a busy F&B kitchen in Times Square.
Almodovar’s first English-language feature doesn’t quite strike gold, but Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore give riveting performances as two friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time, exploring themes of mortality and morality.
Although its overlong slow-cinema style may alienate some audiences, the filmmakers’ control of mise-en-scene feels assured and reassuring as undocumented migrants face moral questions and exploitation eking out a painful existence in the mountains of Taiwan.
Raw and intimate, Lou’s latest is a meta-filmic, time-travelling chronicle back to the COVID-19 pandemic as he reflects on the angst and helplessness of not being able to complete a film, yet it is also surprisingly an emotional work of gratitude.
Hong’s finest film in a while tackles work, life, art, love, past and future with effortless ease, as an art lecturer asks his famous but blacklisted uncle to help her students mount a skit.
Blending concert scenes, comedy and thriller modes, this is a largely rapturous dramatisation of the rise of the Belfast-based hip-hop group as they seek to reclaim the Irish language from the oppressive British authorities.
A brilliant idea to set a ‘warring gangs’ action film in the iconic if long-demolished Kowloon Walled City, but this comic book adaptation feels numbingly empty with its stylistic excesses a tonal mismatch with the more sobering space of marginality and exploitation.
Animated animals that finally don’t talk are the stars of this Latvian Oscar submission for Best International Feature, as a Noah’s Ark-type flood envelopes the world in this compelling and communal survival-adventure.
It may be mid-tier Ridley Scott with standard-fare storytelling, but this sequel is boosted by Denzel Washington’s scene-stealing supporting role and a gleefully gorier treatment of violent spectacle.
Eternality Tan 