Week In, Week Out

The French Dispatch (2021): Wes Anderson is one of the most stylistically distinctive directors out there – and you either love the style or love it much less than you usually love things. In his latest, he becomes idiosyncratic to a fault – a series of three stories, the first of which entices, but the… Read more

The Novice (2021): Lauren Hadaway’s debut feature is what you’d expect to see if you zoomed into those rowing scenes during The Social Network and applied the Black Swan treatment to them. Inspired by Hadaway’s own experiences as a rower, the movie tells the story of Alex Dall, a college student who is driven by… Read more

Boiling Point (2021): Movies set in kitchens are…tight! But also exciting, dynamic and quite depressing, given the intensity so dutifully portrayed in each and every restaurant-based-story. Boiling Point conjures a world inhabited by characters that feel mostly real and genuinely interesting, set against all sorts of time-sensitive challenges. What I enjoyed most is that the… Read more

Celle que vous croyez (2019): A more extreme version of the “voices in our head” theme, Safy Nebbou’s movie tells Claire’s story of unrequited love. Clair, a 50something woman, is brought to life in beautiful nuance by Juliette Binoche, who elevates the meandering parts of this psychological romantic drama to something worth watching. The tricks… Read more

Bergman Island (2021): I am almost willing to say that I’m ashamed of never having seen a Bergman movie (well, does half of The Seventh Seal count?). But I openly admit being ignorant in the ways of most cinema-defining-auteurs that came before the 80s. That being said, I don’t know if I can truly relate… Read more

Dune (2021): The much awaited adaptation from Denis Villeneuve has finally arrived. Its limitations lie in the scope and breadth of the source material, so very difficult to adapt into even a two-part, five hour long movie. My biggest regret is that I couldn’t get attached to the characters, as so many come and go,… Read more

The Card Counter (2021): Paul Schrader surprised everyone with First Reformed, after a series of very lame ducks throughout the 00s. His follow-up, chronologically and thematically, is also a standout – a complicated movie, a slow burner, led by an impeccable performance from Oscar Isaac. It might try to lure you in with the allure… Read more

Bodied (2017): I have zero rapping affinities, but there’s something inherently cool in this witty, irreverent and ambitious movie. Joseph Kahn didn’t quite convince me with his previous feature, Detention, but he applies his flair and experience from doing music videos effectively to elevate Bodied into a perfectly entertaining story about rap, race and friendship.… Read more

Schumacher (2021): The docu takes us from Michael’s financially-stricken youth to his first title for Ferrari, before fast-forwarding through the next ten+ years. It makes some sense, because most of the strong feelings F1 fans have toward him were shaped in those early years, but it also highlights how ineffective it can be to distill… Read more

CODA (2021): Not sure why I have a bit of a fascination with movies portraying the deaf community – while sometimes crude in their depiction, they tend to charm me. CODA does a heck of a job at that – being charming – as it tells the story of Ruby, the only hearing person in… Read more

In the Same Breath (2021): Nanfu Wang follows up the traumatizing One Child Nation with an infuriating documentary about the early days of the COVID pandemic. There’s something in Wang’s style that feels off-putting at first, a personal angle which seems limiting, only to prove the key to unlocking the immediacy and absurdity of a… Read more

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021): Even I’ve read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, a thoroughly enjoyable read about his life as a chef in the 80s and 90s. Although I never followed any of his TV ventures, he was a sympathetic figure and his death a couple of years ago was a sobering moment.… Read more