The film’s story threads are of a tonal piece, all about striking poses as opposed to exploring humanity.
Voyage of Time is arguably the fullest expression of the cosmic themes that filmmaker Terrence Malick has explored for the last decade.
A Quiet Passion, like all of Terence Davies’s films, doesn’t lack for density of theme, allusion, and effect.
In the brutal response of authority, Bertrand Bonello offers a mirror image of the young radicals’ own actions.
Those expecting it to be one of To’s manic comedies will instead be met with arguably his most dour drama.
If Ben Rivers brutalizes its artist’s ego, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s film takes a more sardonic look at vanity.
Sunset Song is conventionally A-to-B, though it’s a strangely freeing framework within which Terence Davies achieves some gorgeously subtle effects.
At times, The Witch’s minimalist chill becomes too diffuse for its own good.
Light in darkness and darkness in light; for every affirmative moment, Frederick Wiseman finds a complementary negative.
One of Hou’s constant themes (one that recurs in the work of many of the notable Taiwanese directors) is alienation, not just of a personal, but of a national sort.
Unfortunately, Rosewater rarely builds off the scenes between Gael García Bernal and Kim Bodnia.
The immediate effect is attention-grabbing, distressing, and in a few cases also emotionally affecting.
A new element in Look of Silence is the view it offers of those who knew murdered victims or who managed to escape death.
Toronto International Film Festival 2014: Pasolini, Tales, & Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2
Abel Ferrara’s wholly unconventional biopic manages to stick in the brain like few I’ve seen so far.
Theodore Melfi’s debut feature, St. Vincent, is a heartwarmer that never insults.
Phoenix perpetuates one of the best contemporary director-actor collaborations.
Toronto International Film Festival 2014: Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Even the title speaks to Roy Andersson’s paradoxical blend of the ornate and dryly blunt.
Writer-director Dan Gilroy does a fantastic job at first of drawing out his protagonist’s eccentricities.
Lynn Shelton’s film feels as rehashed as Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler, albeit to entirely pleasant results.
Dolan employs an assortment of stylistic elements that, through their extravagance, stop him just short of owning his characters’ emotions.