Review: “Last Summer” will make you squirm

by Cláudio Alves

In 2019, May el-Toukhy's Queen of Hearts was a study about power imbalances and masterful manipulation. As a wealthy lawyer who starts an affair with her teenage stepson, Trine Dyrholm embodied a sickening conundrum - someone who defends the abused in the public eye but is an abuser in private. Chilly and sharp, the actress delivered a terrifying performance, opaque in ways we'd expect her to be transparent, a mystery whose actions precipitate a devastating end. Indeed, the Danish film could be described as a tragedy, and it made for a particularly unsettling entry in the season's Best International Film race.

Five years later, Catherine Breillat's French remake arrives in American theaters, offering a most perverse twist on the same premise. Rather than tragedy, Last Summer presents the affair as something closer to farce…

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Review: "Fancy Dance" is a showcase for Lily Gladstone

by Cláudio Alves

Four years ago, Erica Tremblay's Little Chief provided a fascinating sketch in little more than ten minutes. Through smart writing and direction, not to mention Lily Gladstone's performance in the lead, the short conveys a complex sociopolitical milieu while also insinuating a whole lot about its characters' situation. Their lives stretch beyond the narrative frame, and we can grasp them even if their particularities elude the viewer. As a cineaste's calling card, Little Chief is a tremendous little thing, far from innovative yet promising great features in its maker's future. And so it is, and so has happened, with Fancy Dance fulfilling that pledge.

Not that this feature debut is exclusively a proof of Tremblay's potential. It's much more, including one hell of a showcase for Lily Gladstone...

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Review: "The Vourdalak" is a Gothic throwback with its own soul

by Nick Taylor

We love 19th century gothic horror, don’t we folks? One of the most durable subgenres of all time. Influential to our current understanding of what horror is and how to depict it in ways so finely woven into the genre we couldn’t possibly begin to disentangle it from contemporary media.

Director Adrien Beau, making his feature film debut with The Vourdalak following a handful of spooky shorts, has created a vampire film equally indebted to the rhythms and moods of the gothic novella and the style of a Hammer horror flick. There’s no self-aware pastiche, no riffing on the genre, just an immersive attempt to bring some very particular sensibilities back from the dead. After premiering at the 80th Venice Film Festival last year, The Vourdalak is getting a theatrical release this summer. It works beautifully, mordant and sensually detailed, and it’s exactly the kind of gem folks should remember from this part of the year when we’re overwhelmed by December releases...

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Review: A cat faces the apocalypse in "Flow"

by Cláudio Alves

Is there a more cinematic animal than the cat? By all accounts, one of the first – if not the first – use of a closeup in film history featured a cat. Yes, dear reader, cat videos harken back to the 1900s, when George Albert Smith's The Sick Kitten proved a delightful diversion. More than a century later, the big screen has seen many felines, from MGM's Leo to Chris Marker's cat-forward experiments, going through a panoply of animated pusses in between. Yet, the seventh art continues its love affair with the cat, finding new ways to celebrate and elevate these natural-born movie stars. 

Just look at Flow, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis's new film. It premiered on the Croisette before bowing at Annecy, where it won four prizes, including the Audience Award…

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Dynamic Duos: What's Your Favorite Director-Actor Team?

by Cláudio Alves

Emma Stone x 3 in Yorgos Lanthimos' KINDS OF KINDNESS (2024).

Kinds of Kindness has just hit theaters, and Yorgos Lanthimos is back in the news cycle. It seems the Greek director's Hollywood success has set him on a path of productivity unlike anything seen in his Greek Weird Wave origins. By his side, we can find Emma Stone, who's quickly becoming Lanthimos' most emblematic collaborator. Since their first team-up for 2018's The Favourite, they have shot the silent short Bleat, the Oscar champion Poor Things, and the Cannes award-winning Kinds of Kindness. Next comes Bugonia, a remake of the South Korean Save the Green Planet, where Stone will play a CEO kidnapped by two men who believe her to be an alien.

Though it's nice to see such a burgeoning artistic partnership flourish in today's cinematic landscape, I wish I was fonder of their bond. As it stands, I'm not sure they bring the best out of each other…

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