Dreyer’s transcendent silent masterwork remains as formally radical, visually overwhelming, and spiritually profound as ever—a film whose eternal close-ups seem to abolish the century between then and now.
A ‘revelatory’ work in more ways than one, Dogme 95’s first official entry sees Vinterberg masterfully throwing us into the deep end of dark secrets and hard truths, as a reunion of family and friends celebrating the 60th birthday of a patriarch turns into a moral catastrophe.
A polished but disturbing period film with a ‘modern’ sound design, set in the years after WWI in Copenhagen, as an unemployed and pregnant young woman seeks refuge with an older woman who operates a clandestine baby adoption service.
A stylish, aesthetic tour de force, particularly in the use of rear projection techniques, this noir-ish melodrama about an American train conductor in 1945 Germany tells of the precarious postwar atmosphere of remnant Nazism.
Abbasi’s disquieting based-on-a-true-story work about an unorthodox serial killer who ‘takes care’ of prostitutes in the name of religion is as dark as they come, set in the most unexpected of locations—the holy Iranian city of Mashhad.
Animated documentaries may be few and far between, but this is an affecting work that skilfully details an Afghan refugee’s harrowing life story fleeing from war and conflict, and more introspectively, from himself.
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.
Drags a bit too long for its own good, but Vinterberg’s latest remains to be a fairly compelling drama with fine performances.
Joachim Trier’s attempt at genre-type filmmaking doesn’t really break new ground in this straightforward Norwegian psychological drama centering on a young woman with hidden telekinetic powers.
If politics can be beguiling, then this documentary about Imelda Marcos entertainingly captures the ups and downs of The Philippines’ larger sociopolitical history with aplomb.
