The Film Stage

In just over a decade, Mike Flanagan went from promising indie director to one of the best American genre filmmakers working today. Starting with Absentia and Oculus, he soon worked his way up to studio fare (Doctor Sleep) before spending the past several years making Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of […]

The post TIFF Review: Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck is a Childish Take on Universal Experience first appeared on The Film Stage.

Chatting with the head of a prominent documentary-production company recently, I asked if hybrid filmmaking had reached its natural limit. Could it conceivably be pushed further? He posited these limitations might be behind a recent trend of documentarians pivoting to fiction: Kirsten Johnson is making a Susan Sontag biopic with Kristen Stewart; Frederick Wiseman made […]

The post TIFF Review: Joshua Oppenheimer’s Bunker-Set Musical The End Offers Earnest Look at Redemption first appeared on The Film Stage.

In this year’s diverse line-up of Venice competition titles, there is one that stands out. A film without any predecessors or useful comparison-companions, a truly singular example of a cinematic mystery: Dea Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore feature April. After two shorts at Cannes and a debut (2020’s Beginning) that (to say the least) wowed TIFF, San Sebastian, […]

The post Venice Review: Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April is a Mystical Cinematic Revelation first appeared on The Film Stage.

When Nicolás (Henry Golding) wakes from his dream, Daniela (Beatrice Grannò) is gone. It wasn’t some crazy adventure or anything, either. Just the two of them remembering the first time they met. The playback is imperfect. Or, at least, he thinks it is. How can we ever truly remember every little detail anyway? Or that […]

The post TIFF Review: In Nacho Vigalondo’s Daniela Forever, a Romantic Dreamscape Turns Nightmarish first appeared on The Film Stage.

“I’m older––I’m not old,” says Shelley, the longest-term performer in a past-its-prime Las Vegas revue. She is played by Pamela Anderson, the international icon who has never, ever had a role like this. Shelley is 57 years old, living paycheck-to-paycheck, estranged from her daughter, and intensely vulnerable. Clearly we are far from the beaches of […]

The post TIFF Review: Pamela Anderson Shines in Gia Coppola’s Moving The Last Showgirl first appeared on The Film Stage.

Mike Leigh is nothing if not an expert at conceiving (in conjunction with talented actors) a certain kind of larger-than-life character. Well, larger-than-life within the context of a realist drama. Think of Johnny in Naked, the revolting and terminally ranting man, or Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky, a young woman perpetually optimistic to the point of threatening […]

The post TIFF Review: Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths is a Work of Knotty Dramaturgy and Patient Form first appeared on The Film Stage.

There was slight trepidation going into Bonjour Tristesse. Justifying itself as another “adaptation” of Françoise Sagan’s text rather than remake of Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of mise-en-scène, there’s still some hesitation about the chutzpah that must go into thinking you can top that great craftsman at the height of his power. As directed by writer-turned-filmmaker Durga […]

The post TIFF Review: Bonjour Tristesse Strikes a Different Note Than Otto Preminger’s Masterpiece first appeared on The Film Stage.

Psychic tradition has been part of history for thousands of years, yet the process can still feel mysterious to many. Documentarian Lana Wilson, who previously captured portraits of Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields, found herself curious about the field during the pandemic while living in NYC. So, with her film crew, she set out to […]

The post Look Into My Eyes Director Lana Wilson on Psychic Tradition vs. Therapy, the Loneliness of NYC, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life first appeared on The Film Stage.

Fielding questions about Kubi, a period piece chronicling a few years of internecine feudal wars in 16th-century Japan, Takeshi Kitano dismissed some rumors he’d stoked. The film wasn’t going to be his last, as he’d previously suggested. In fact, he was already working on the next, a parody that would explore “the theme of comedy […]

The post Venice Review: Broken Rage Is a Hilarious, Rollicking Self-Portrait of Takeshi Kitano first appeared on The Film Stage.

Just because everyone is talking about Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF right now doesn’t mean theaters have suddenly stopped opening new movies near you. Some of them are even the same films playing at those festivals too. There are a ton of titles dropping this September despite only having four Fridays. Then you add the […]

The post Posterized September 2024: Eureka, Red Rooms, Matt and Mara & More first appeared on The Film Stage.