Paula González-Nasser talks the influence of Akerman and Antonioni on The Scout, her debut about a location scout who is like a side-character in her own life.

Danish paedo drama Cute is a well-made exploration of forbidden desires that unfortunately raises as many bad questions as good ones.

The personal meets the political, and memories meet collective ways of seeing, in Pavla Banjac's evocative visit to the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Like every other film in its genre, No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman can't help but make being a sniper look awesome; the drama is sadly not up to par.

Bringing together footage from 40 different people, Super Nature is a testament to the magic of Super 8 to capture the wonder and ephemerality of nature.

While Big Little Things is based upon a well-worn queer premise, the execution gives us just enough complexity to stick with it.

Talky drama One Minute to Midnight is certainly pleasant, but its not gripping enough to justify inclusion in the Venice Competition.

Shot in classic naturalist social realist style, What Belongs to Others is a portrait of a thief with an elusive, convincing performance by Monika Kwiatkowska.

Sabu's Arrested Memory is a weird blend of crime comedy, emotional journey and martial arts movie. None of it really coheres.

Subverting the usual expectations of true crime, City of the Living is noticeable for the amount it focusses on the victim of a notorious Roman murder.

Francesca Archibugi's Carla Lonzi, a Feminist Story is a touching remembrance of one of Italy's most trailblazing feminists.

Un détour par Diane by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni expertly blurs the boundaries between one woman's lived experience and another's emotional life.

Denis Ménochet lends tremendous gravitas to a Macron-esque president trying to avert nuclear war in Alexandre Smia's Jupiter, playing in Out Of Competition.

Two films at Locarno display how often the practice of Christianity contradicts the principles of kindness and empathy found in the New Testament.

The use of artifical intelligence in Edgar Pêra's Asphalt Guerilla may be inspired by good intentions, but it bodes poorly for the future of documentaries.

A modest yet touching documentary, Emil Langballe's Petrolheads examines addiction, mental illness and the redemptive power of friendship and cars.

One Night Only imagines a world where sex is only permissible once a year, splitting the difference between fun comedy and puritanical views on intercourse.

Coming-of-age movies in recent years are usually snoozy; Giovanni Tortorici’s whipsmart funny Ketticè is the wonderful exceptional to that rule.

Axel Bertha talks to us about his debut feature Against Nature, casting non-professional actors and being mentored by Carlos Reygadas.

Controversial at Cannes, the Karlovy Premiere of The Unknown (L'Inconnue) reveals a mysterious and beguiling experience, starring Léa Seydoux.

Notes on The Outsiders, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Fjord and Everytime

Small yet powerful, Five Years, Four Months takes an almost structuralist approach to grief, showing one mother's unending journey to find her missing son.

My Friend the Porn Star appears to be curious about the porn industry, but it rarely leaves the rarefied air of very specific Viennese friend groups.

Miroslav Terzić's follow up to Stitches (2019) is a devastating exploration of the infinity cruelty of children that makes Adolescence look like Bluey.

In a deeply cynical world, the moral clarity of WW2 escape drama The Last Chance is extremely refreshing.

With a savage precision, Andrius Blaževičius' film How to Divorce During the War pushes the limits of Baltic solidarity for Ukraine.

Returning to the big screen 72 years after its Karlovy Vary premiere, Cecil Holmes western Captain Thunderbolt is an unsung gem of early Australian cinema.

With echoes of classic Dogme 95, The Guest gets great mileage out of Trine Dyrholm as a chaotic mother upsetting a Danish christening.

Romanian cinema remains, at its heart, a true actor's cinema. TIFF 2026 provides undeniable evidence; as well as a smattering of international films.

Steven Spielberg's latest original science-fiction is a return to familiar territory, yet it pales in comparison to the famed directors' greatest works.

Between weak films, absent Americans and a French cinema on the brink of collapse, the Cannes Film Festival appears to be facing a rare crisis of authority.

Lukas Dhont's follow up to Close (2022) is a touching tale of art-making during war, touching on themes of sexuality, fantasy and the harshness of reality.

Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Tales has been critically panned, but our reviewer found its tribute to the work of Kieślowski remarkably touching.

With an impossibly beautiful aesthetic, Konstantina Kotzamani's Titanic Ocean is a unique mermaid movie that transports you to another world.

Asia Argento stars as a wealthy heiress returning to a scarred Venezuela in Jorge Thielen Armand’s entertaining yet vapid Death Has No Master.

Ron Howard's tribute to Richard Avedon is a faithful exploration of how the famed photographer invented reality with his imaginative photographs.

Told with his usual neon-heavy aesthetic, Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell is a beguiling tale of absent parenthood, playing Out of Competition.

With films about dogs easy to love — because after all, who doesn't love dogs — it takes a special talent to make something as cynical and ugly as La Perra.

A simple plan goes fiendishly out of hand in Dying Twice, Living Thrice, Karim Lakzadeh's existential critique of modern day Iran.

Angela Schnalec's DOP travels to Cambodia for an intellectually rigorous, if slightly tedious docufiction about the rich-poor divide.

Valentina Maurel's sophomore feature, Forever Your Maternal Animal, is a touching tale of familial bonds, mental illness and feminine sexuality.

Flesh and Fuel rises above its euro-drama trappings by capturing a great sense of sweetness and vulnerability among the continent's gay trucking community.

Anchored by an excellent performance by Eva Huault, Shana is a deeply entertaining Parisian-set tale of Jewish identity and feminine chaos.

Aina Clotet's woman-in-crisis picture Viva is a thrilling tale of female reclamation — an easy standout from Cannes Critics' Week.

Joseph Owen takes stock in Linz, a modern(ising) city with a dark past, to reckon with the multiple forms of adaptation, at Crossing Europe.

A romantic trip to the Welsh goes horribly wrong when emails from a deceased ex-boyfriend threaten to derail everything in Worm, Ned Caderni's assured debut.

More Film Recommendations That Don't Totally Suck

In our first edition of Double Take, Redmond and Jared discuss Antoine Fuqua's misguided and insidious Michael Jackson biopic.

Christian Petzold sits down with Journey Into Cinema to discuss Miroirs No. 3, arguing with his family, and why repairing things is the opposite of capitalism.

The Roots of Madness is an excellent exploration of American intervention in the Middle East that sadly suffers from a fatal omission.