The Film Stage

With her second feature film, Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni looks at the pain, memory, and absurdity of familial Zambian tradition. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl follows Shula (Susan Chardy), who finds her uncle dead in the middle of the road one night. Shula and her cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) spend the first minutes of Nyoni’s […]

The post NYFF Review: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a Powerfully Enraging, Surreally Comedic Look at Zambian Tradition first appeared on The Film Stage.

As one can tell from our feature wrapping up the best premieres on the fall circuit, no film has earned more discussion these last few months than Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. Led by Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Isaach De Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola, the drama of epic […]

The post The Brutalist Trailer: Brady Corbet Builds an Epic Charting the American Dream first appeared on The Film Stage.

Each year the Busan International Film Festival screens movies at its outdoor stage. Among the titles this year was Kalki 2898 AD, a sci-fi box-office sensation from India. The story pits superhero gods against each other in a dystopian future of deserts and decaying cities.  A passion project for writer-director Nag Ashwin, the film was […]

The post The Making of the Indian Sci-Fi Box-Office Sensation Kalki 2898 AD first appeared on The Film Stage.

As we get closer to the end of 2024 and various critics and voting bodies collate their year-end lists and ballots, the question of what is eligible for such selection often crops up. It’s become common practice for distributors to give a quiet, one-week awards-qualifying run divorced from the standard promotion a theatrical rollout will […]

The post All 2024 Films Having Awards-Qualifying, One-Week Releases first appeared on The Film Stage.

Whatever acclaim––nay, outright-legendary status––is foisted upon Michelangelo Antonioni typically comes from a small selection of films produced in the 1960s. While I continue awaiting just desserts for Mystery of Oberwald and Beyond the Clouds, we can now cross off Il Grido, his 1957 feature that’s been restored by The Film Foundation, Cineteca di Bologna, and […]

The post Michelangelo Antonioni’s Early Triumph Il Grido Receives New Restoration and Trailer first appeared on The Film Stage.

Canadian director Guy Maddin embraces absurdity. Along with his co-writers and directors Evan and Galen Johnson, Maddin has added to his surrealist oeuvre with Rumours, a comedy satirizing the G7 Summit. Bringing together a lauded cast led by Cate Blanchett playing the Chancellor of Germany, the film follows the seven world leaders as they get […]

The post “100 Clichés Move Us”: Rumours Directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson on Finding Humor in a World in Crisis first appeared on The Film Stage.

Although his illustrious career has been ongoing for decades, this year marks quite a major milestone for Pedro Almodóvar. He premiered his very first English-language feature The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, at Venice Film Festival where he was feted with his first top festival prize: the Golden Lion. While much […]

The post Pedro Almodóvar Plans Early 2025 Shoot for Next Feature Bitter Christmas first appeared on The Film Stage.

In Charlie McDowell’s last feature, Windfall, the ambitious (though largely unsuccessful) idea was to put the audience in a stressful situation (à la Hitchcock) and then quickly vent the pressure with a few violent set pieces (à la Tarantino). By contrast, his latest feature, The Summer Book, is based entirely on what we might call […]

The post BFI London Review: Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book is a Clunky Drama Connecting Landscape and Soul first appeared on The Film Stage.

Happy Halloween from The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about Tim Burton! The man! The brand! The artist! The director! The lothario (complimentary)! The B-Sides today include Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, […]

The post The B-Side – Tim Burton (with Maria Lewis) first appeared on The Film Stage.

Bringing a pristine level of craft with their portraits of subcultures in The Last Race and The Truffle Hunters, Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck turned their vision to the world of gauchos for their latest project. Returning to Sundance Film Festival for a third time earlier this year, Gaucho Gaucho beautifully captures this particular way […]

The post Guacho Guacho Trailer: The Truffle Hunters Directors Craft an Argentinian Western first appeared on The Film Stage.