A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Daniel Roher, “Tuner” (2015) The notion that a piano tuner and a safe-cracking expert can share similar attributes – an incredibly sharp sense of hearing, tactile…
French and French-language Films
Rebecca Zlotowski, “Vie Privée” (“A Private Life”) (2026) Billed as a crime / mystery thriller, this film is best seen as a psychological character study revolving…
French and French-language Films
François Ozon, “L’Étranger” (2025) The third film adaptation of Albert Camus’s famous novel, and the first made in France – previous adaptations having been made in…
Brazilian Films, Portuguese-language Films
Kleber Mendonça Filho, “O Agente Secreto / The Secret Agent” (2025) Folks anticipating a fast-paced spy thriller might be disappointed to discover this film is actually…
Park Chanwook, “No Other Choice” (2025) Behind a convoluted plot in which a paper industry expert, unceremoniously retrenched after 25 years of giving his all to…
British Films, North American Films
Rose Glass, “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024) A surprisingly entertaining film, spoilt only by a cartoonish climax of wishful female empowerment in which love, even lesbian love,…
Kenneth Branagh, “A Haunting in Venice” (2023) For his third outing as Belgian police detective Hercule Poirot, actor / director Kenneth Branagh chose to go with…
Kim Ki-young, “Hanyo / The Housemaid” (1960) Delirious and overwrought in its soap-opera melodrama, this cult classic of South Korean cinema works as a satire of…
French and French-language Films, North American Films
Jim Jarmusch, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999) Even after twenty years, this film still holds up well as an unusual and odd pastiche…
Darkus Marque, “Alien Infinity” (2015) Made during his spare time between January and August 2015, “Alien Infinity” from graphic designer (and aspiring film-maker at the time)…