The Film Stage

In a twist for the ages, the greatest joke of Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel––which contains far fewer punchlines than the first, regardless of how they land––is the movie itself. Not in craft, but the film’s holistic departure from its predecessor. After an explosive response, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver knew exactly what chaos people would […]

The post Venice Review: Joker: Folie à Deux Pulls a Prank on Incels and Anarchists Everywhere first appeared on The Film Stage.

A ruthlessly efficient thriller fueled by boiling rage, Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge wastes no time setting the stakes. Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is listening to metal music on his headphones, biking into the fictional small town of Shelby Springs, Louisiana, when a police cruiser crashes into him, forcing a tumble to the ground. He sold […]

The post Rebel Ridge Review: Jeremy Saulnier’s Ruthlessly Efficient Thriller Unleashes a Powder Keg of Rage first appeared on The Film Stage.

If the Hollywood superhero-industrial complex is perishing, the Rolling Stone and Spin magazine extended universe is hastily being built. What better defines “pre-awareness” for the studios like the data logged by Spotify’s algorithm, where billions of track plays confirm what past popular music has stood the test of time, and also how––in the streaming era––you […]

The post Venice Review: Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements Both Reinvents and Justifies the Rock Doc first appeared on The Film Stage.

Among the most-anticipated films on the fall festival circuit is the long-awaited return from Mike Leigh with Hard Truths. Marking a reunion with Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, it’s the British filmmaker’s first contemporary work in nearly fifteen years. Ahead of a TIFF world premiere this Friday, followed by a stop at NYFF and […]

The post First Trailer for Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths Finds Marianne Jean-Baptiste Searching for Happiness first appeared on The Film Stage.

In a sunny kitchen in California, Ruth prepares a sandwich with the muscle memory that only a lifetime allows. Bread is toasted and left to cool; dill is picked and chopped efficiently; sour cream, radish, and salmon are arranged to resemble a blooming flower. After going to get ready, she serves it to a man […]

The post Venice Review: Sarah Friedland’s Wonderfully Gentle Familiar Touch Heralds a New Voice first appeared on The Film Stage.

At last year’s Venice Film Festival, Harmony Korine took a wild left-turn with Aggro Dr1ft, the first feature from his new production company EDGLRD. The mystery movie, shot in infrared and intentionally devoid of any recognizable cinematic mode or style, left audiences more confused than when they went in (if they lasted). It garnered more […]

The post Venice Review: Harmony Korine’s Baby Invasion Sets a New, Anxiety-Inducing Standard for Cinematic Absurdism first appeared on The Film Stage.

Where’s the filth? I wrote down the question on page two of my notes, roughly about when Queer entered its second chapter, sending Lee (Daniel Craig) and his young lover Eugene (Drew Starkey) on a quest for ayahuasca in South America. Having spent the first section tracking Lee as he fritters time away in Mexico […]

The post Venice Review: Luca Guadagnino’s Queer is a Hollow, Stylized Vessel of a Film first appeared on The Film Stage.

An unnamed village, an unknown time; somewhere in Britain, sometime in the Late Middle Ages, something is about to end. Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest sees the twilight of an old social order, but is not mourning a paradise lost. That would be too simplistic a comparison for a filmmaker whose work has always succeeded in […]

The post Venice Review: Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest Beautifully Renders the Past Present first appeared on The Film Stage.

Killers of the Flower Moon‘s epilogue felt like the last word on true crime: a director with several based-on-a-true-story tales to his name emerging from behind the camera to highlight the shortcomings of a genre that reduces victims to collateral damage in stories more compelled by their killers. That it arrived as splashy courtroom dramas […]

The post Red Rooms Review: Nihilistic Thriller and Stealth Satire is an Unsettling Examination of True-Crime Obsession first appeared on The Film Stage.

It’s fall 1983 in the Pacific Northwest, a historical hotbed for white poverty and white-power mobilization. Flannels flow like wine, backcountry bowl cut-adjacent male fringes mark burgeoning leadership, and there isn’t a shiny new car for 100 miles in any direction. On both sides of the law we find ourselves in the company of brawny […]

The post Venice Review: Justin Kurzel’s Crime Thriller The Order Is Aswim with Cliché But Nails Emotional Beats first appeared on The Film Stage.