Rankin’s sophomore feature feels like Kaurismaki meets Kiarostami as his surreal, and at times perplexing tale brings us through a hybrid Canadian-Iranian space marked by quaint shophouses and bustling highways.
Kapadia’s sophomore feature expertly blends realism and poeticism as her filmmaking of sincerity and subtlety brings us into three Indian women’s perspectives and feelings as they contemplate their lives’ paths, which are uncertain yet paradoxically preordained.
Baker’s Cannes hit promises a volatile, anxiety-fest of a cinematic experience, pumped up by Mikey Madison’s outstanding performance as a stripper who has a ‘fairytale marriage’ to the son of a Russian oligarch, though it doesn’t always work triumphantly in its latter half.
Still needs another much tighter recut, this now unbanned Thai film about a cult of dog-worshipping fanatics is at times intolerable with its B-movie vibe though it unexpectedly turns into something revelatory about the meaning of ‘God’.
As highly personal a documentary as it gets about seeking for truth and justice, featuring the derring-do of the journalist-director who was sexually assaulted by a powerful man many years ago as she painstakingly attempts to put the demon to the sword.
While sometimes too overreliant on its non-linear storytelling, this serviceable rehabilitation drama boasts stunning scenes of the Orkney Islands, as Saoirse Ronan captures all of the fury and sensitivity of her character trying to liberate herself from alcoholism.
Themes of ‘identity’ and ‘role-playing’ swirl intensely in this decent offering starring the Berlinale award-winning Sebastian Stan, who plays a disfigured man who begins to morph into a normal-looking person after an experimental clinical trial.
Huppert returns in front of Hong’s camera for the third time in this largely breezy drama about ‘learning’, ‘feeling’ and ‘sipping’ as a French woman uses an unorthodox method to teach French to several Koreans in their encounters with music or poetry.
With incredible abandon and ambition, Coppola’s work, infused with Roman allegory, is staggering in terms of craft despite its rather clunky storytelling, as a time-controlling architect hopes to rebuild a new utopian city that is future-looking.
A meaningful social initiative to connect young daughters with their incarcerated fathers is the subject of this rewarding Sundance award-winning documentary that might be one of the most moving films of the year.
Eternality Tan 