The Front Room
While a filmmaker who commits to their premise is usually worth commending, The Front Room repels the viewer towards condemning it.
Elevation Pictures
Robot Dreams
Robot Dreams is a nice slice of easygoing entertainment, and it’s simple to see why it nabbed a recent Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.
Handling the Undead
The iconic “crossing the streams” scenario, originally pitched by Ghostbusters, has served to be an effective comparison when describing debacles. Such is the case for another supernatural film, Handling the Undead. Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl essentially”crosses the streams” by running a metaphorical subtext with more literal examples. Hvistendahl aims for nuance, but misses and creates heavy-handed deliveries and drawn out results.
Irena’s Vow
Fun fact: did you know, in 2024, there’s been more films about the holocaust than movies about killer spiders? I suppose this isn’t really an odd coincidence considering audiences don’t often see movies about killer spiders. But also considering Sting is currently playing in theatres and Infested streams on Shudder by the end of April, it’s a bit weird the arachnids are still outnumbered.
La Chimera
Filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher is on the cusp of making a good movie with La Chimera but, in a feigned and suspicious manner, the writer/director can’t help but break the reality of her story to satisfy her own needs.
Immaculate
By: Jolie Featherstone [CW: Violent punishment, religious trauma, forced birth, miscarriage, newborn murder] IT girl Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You, Madame Web) puts herself in motion to be the next Scream Queen in the blood-soaked, religious horror film Immaculate.
French Girl
By: Jolie Featherstone Funny and charming, French Girl takes audiences back to the classic romantic comedies of the 2000s in this impressive feature-length directorial debut from James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright.
Perfect Days
Perfect Days is a balm for the soul: clearing carried-over pessimism, reminding audiences of how astounding life can be, not shaming solitary lifestyles but also suggesting that our hearts should be open to the communities around us. All of these epiphanies orbiting around the routine of public washroom cleaner Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho, who won Best Actor at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for his introverted performance).