“First Cow” is very much a Kelly Reichardt movie. That will be the deciding factor as to whether or not you want to give this movie a shot.

Led by a beautifully subtle performance from Barbara Colen, here is a film unafraid to please both arthouse and midnight crowds in equal measures. The result is confusing in tempo, but unique and compulsively watchable in a where-the-hell-will-it-take-me-next kind of nature.

The neo-realism in Romanian cinema is put to tepid use in Corneliu Porumboiu “The Whistlers,” a dark comedy noir which can’t go past its one original idea.

Benh Zeitlin triumphed seven years ago at Sundance with “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” It went on to get nominated for Best Picture and set Zeitlin up as a possible heir to Terrence Malick’s brand of naturalist cinema.

Bless Ken Loach’s heart. The man is relentless in his refusal to stop depicting working-class stories. After all, even his closest competitor, Mike Leigh, has dabbled outside his comfort zone in the past; not Loach, though, who was once retired but is back to tell the tales.

We’ve seen many movies depict the presence of the KKK in southern states, even in the organization’s later years when the group was shunned and went further underground. A socially conscious movie like “Burden” must be commended for “going there” despite the old school, preachy theatrics that it deploys. 

In the latest Dardenne brothers movie, a young Arabic boy gets indoctrinated by a local Imam's teachings and tries to commit a heinous act.

Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus star in “Downhill,” which is the English-language remake of Swedish film “Force Majeure.” The American remake, directed by the duo of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash ("The Descendants," "The Way Way Back") and scripted by “Four Lions” writer, Jesse Armstrong, isn’t nearly as artful as the original, which was directed by Palme D’Or winner Ruben Ostlund.

Nick Kroll is known these days as the creative mind behind Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” an animated sitcom about middle schoolers going through puberty. The critical acclaim and success of that show seems to have given Kroll the opportunity to screenwrite “Olympic Dreams.”

I saw director Jeff Baena’s “Horse Girl” two weeks ago at Sundance where it was completely ignored for bigger, flashier titles. Written by Baena, the film stars the incomparable Alison Brie (“Mad Men,” “Community,” “GLOW”) as Sarah, an arts and crafts store employee who may be losing grasp of reality.

A mediocre DC movie is still the best Harley Quinn movie we’ve gotten so far

In “Come to Daddy” a wide-eyed Elijah Wood, who stars as Norval, a thirty-something underachiever living with mom in Los Angeles, carries a mystery note from his long-estranged alcoholic father telling him to visit his remote, ocean-front house in Oregon.

Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” which competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year, tells the true story of Mafia informant Tommaso Buscetta, responsible for over 350 criminal cases.

You never see Harvey Weinstein in director Kitty Green’s “The Assistant.” His barking orders can be heard through closed doors and phone conversations, but that’s all. He’s not even mentioned by name. However, his presence is all over “The Assistant,” a compulsively fascinating film that takes place 24 hours in the life of a woman working as Weinstein’s office assistant.

Arthouse horror is on a tear right now, and it’s no secret. One of the most inspiring movements in American cinema right now, modern classics like “Hereditary,” “Get Out,” “The Witch,” “It Follows,” et al. have reinvigorated a genre blunted by the cheap slasher films of the ’80s and ’90s and sparked something of a movement, thoughtful, emotionally bruising and sometimes glacially paced horror.

28-year-old writer-director Kantemir Balagov shocked and astonished many at Cannes just two years ago with his startlingly assured debut feature, “Closeness,” which won a FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section. He returns in UCR selection again, with another challenging and bleak statement set in his native Russia, and has earned the section’s Best Director prize for his efforts.

Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child, which played in the director’s fortnight sidebar, is a zombie movie, but one filled with dangerously spiritual voodoo.

[Review originally posted at the Cannes Film Festival on 05.16.19]

The fringes of France are about to blow up in Les Misérables, the feature-length directorial debut from 39-year-old Ladj Ly. The film expands on Ly’s documentary and César-nominated 2017 short of the same name, which also starred this feature’s three leads. “Les Misérables” is playing in competition at Cannes, which is an unusual pick, since first-time efforts tend to not be chosen to compete for the Palme D’or. Ly uses a cop-thriller structure to tell his story; in fact, his film bears more than a few similarities to Antoine Fuqua’s movies, albeit a slightly better version of that testosterone-fueled film. If ‘Day’ lacked in socio-political messaging, Ly more than makes up for it with his take on three cops roaming the streets of an impoverished but culturally rich neighborhood in the banlieu of France’s Montfermeil neighborhood.