Cannes 2013 Review: Takashi Miike's SHIELD OF STRAW Gets Middling Results From High Concept

There are so many ways in which Takashi Miike's Shield of Straw falls short of being the knockout that it could have been, it's hard to know where to start. The script alone could easily inspire a novella detailing all... More »

By Brian Clark

Review: KIDS ON THE SLOPE is a Jazzy Coming-of-age Tale from COWBOY BEBOP'S Director

Watching Watanabe Shinichiro's Kids on the Slope having already seen his previous works Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo feels very much like watching Hosoda Mamoru's Wolf Children after seeing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. It feels... More »

By Hugo Ozman

Cannes 2013 Review: Anurag Kashyap's UGLY Is a Riveting Thriller About Awful Things

Anurag Kashyap's follow-up to the widely admired Gangs of Wasseypur announces itself with a cacophony of discordant noise screeching over an attempted suicide. It's almost as if Kashyup decided to warn viewers up front, this one won't be easy. And,... More »

By Brian Clark

Review: 33 POSTCARDS Gently Tugs On Heartstrings

33 Postcards is a film of special significance, as it marks the first official collaboration between China and New South Wales, Australia. At the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, it won the Community Relations Commission... More »

By Hugo Ozman

Review: PIETA, Searching For Humanity In An Unspeakable Monster

Throughout his career, Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk has been a director known to explore the extreme poles of human experience. The divide in his work, in the style and content of one film to the next, is often so sharp... More »

By Todd Brown

Jeonju 2013 Review: Lee Sang-woo's Thrilling EMERGENCY EXIT is a Poetic Gutpunch

Every year, the Jeonju International Film Festival commissions a pair of omnibus features. The longest-running and most famous of these is the Jeonju Digital Project, which has featured a number of star Asian directors over the years. The other is... More »

By Pierce Conran

Blu-ray Review: TOKYO MAGNITUDE 8.0 Is Tragedy Animated

Japan's psyche was deeply affected after the Fukushima catastrophe and the effects of this have been increasingly felt in a lot of post-trauma works of fiction since. However there's one work of fiction that aired only 18 months before the... More »

By Kwenton Bellette

Review: GO GOA GONE Goes Great Guns, Gets Gasps And Giggles

Color me genuinely shocked. I went to to Bollywood's first zombie comedy with very low expectations and came out completely enthused about the finished product. Directorial team Raj & DK took a lot of very broad references and influences and... More »

By J Hurtado

Review: Breezy Rom-Com A WEDDING INVITATION Rings A Little Hollow

In the film business these days, China seems to be the word on everyone's lips, as its market is in the midst of a breathless expansion. However, strict quotas on foreign imports mean that only 35 international films get to... More »

By Pierce Conran

Review: A WOMAN AND WAR (SENSO NO HITORI NO ONNA) Confronts Wartime Sex Crimes

A Woman and War is the feature length debut from Inoue Junichi, a screenwriter who started his career as an assistant director at Wakamatsu Productions. The first time director experienced some festival success back in 2009 with his script for... More »

By Christopher O'Keeffe

Jeonju 2013 Review: The Ethereal DEAR DOLPHIN Explores Grief and Guilt

The most anticipated film of the Jeonju International Film Festival's Korean Competition this year, Kang Ji-na's feature Dear Dolphin, was also the most polished. With its themes of love, loss and loneliness, as well as its vibrant colors, strong mise-en-scene... More »

By Pierce Conran

NYIFF 2013 Review: OONGA Is A Little Boy's Dream Made Real

No matter where you come from, children are all the same. Mischief is their main motivator, and it is everything for them to feel a part of something. When a young boy, Oonga, in a remote rural village discovers that... More »

By J Hurtado

Review: ABDUCTEE Sees Yamaguchi Thinking Outside the Box

Japanese director Yamaguchi Yudai shows signs of creative growth and maturity in this taut, well-directed chamber piece that takes place entirely within the confines of a shipping container. When middle-aged security guard Chiba awakes to find himself bound and gagged... More »

By James Marsh

NYIFF 2013 Review: AATMA Gives Even Its Villains A Little Bit Of Soul

Suparn Verma's latest film, Aatma, is one that's been on my radar for quite some time. I was more than a little bit disappointed when it didn't open stateside as expected, but I'm happy to see it get its moment... More »

By J Hurtado

Review: SHOOTOUT AT WADALA Is All Slo-Mo Aviators, Mustaches, And Blood.

It may have happened around the time of the second item number, I'm not quite sure. We'd just come back from the intermission when, seemingly out of nowhere, Priyanka Chopra appeared in an LED-lit bodysuit shaking her tail feathers like... More »

By J Hurtado

Review: HENTAI KAMEN Delivers A Face Full Of Crotch

There's an all too common formula for trailers for domestic titles in Japanese theatres: shots of a high school age daughter, a jovial old rascal, a man running through the streets, and a lot of crying. So the HK: Hentai... More »

By Christopher O'Keeffe

Jeonju 2013 Review: Mystery Abounds in the Divisive LEBANON EMOTION

In the world of cinema, things aren't always as they seem. A film presents itself to us in a certain way, its details on screen carefully selected by its director. The new Korean film Lebanon Emotion takes a risky approach... More »

By Pierce Conran

Dallas IFF 2013 Review: A COMPANY MAN Is A Bittersweet Life In A Wanted World

You know what, I'm not even sure that I still get excited about the appearance of new Korean revenge thrillers anymore. It seems as though that's all that anyone is interested in now. Sure, very few national cinemas have managed... More »

By J Hurtado

Jeonju 2013 Review: CHEER UP MR. LEE Could Use a Pick-Me-Up

If you watch a lot of films, it's hard not to get at least a little excited when a new film about filmmaking comes along. While not a golden recipe for surefire success, the subgenre yields a surprisingly strong crop... More »

By Pierce Conran

Jeonju 2013 Review: Narrative Experiment DECEMBER Let Down by Weak Story

These days, in a bid to stand out from a crowded field, a lot of young filmmakers experiment with their chronologies. While there's nothing wrong with experimenting with form, it's very important to have a strong narrative before playing around... More »

By Pierce Conran

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Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

Fifteen Unfilmable Novels And The Directors Who Should Try Anyway

Ah, the 'unfilmable' novel. Go back ten or fifteen years and it seems everyone had some sort of list of great novels that could never be brought to the screen. The limitations at the time were largely technical and in recent years those lists have dwindled with titles such as... More »

Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: On MAN OF STEEL, SuperJesus, and THIS IS THE END's Jewpocalypse

Back in 1933, while Hitler was ascending into power in Germany and diasporic Jews throughout the world looked on with concern, two high school students created one of the most indelible mythical heroes of the last century. Borrowing from the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, Joe Shuster and Jerry... More »

Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END

This is the big week of Superman's return, with Zack Snyder's take on the caped saviour hitting our screens. While my opinion's kind of mixed on the film, there's still plenty to admire about it. I also discuss the overt Jesus imagery throughout, as expanded in a full cineruminations column... More »

70s Rewind: Bridges, Barbra, Bogdanovich, Brynner

Amazon's Prime Instant streaming service is not as well-established as Netflix and has far more modest offerings in off-beat and strange cinema. Still, since I temporarily dropped Netflix, I've been diving deeper into Amazon's catalog, and discovered a good number of films from my favorite movie decade. Here's a selection... More »

LA Film Fest 2013: Twitch Picks 12 Must-See Films

It's LA Film Fest time with LA's downtown fest kicking off tonight with Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited. Twitch will be on hand with a small crew to bring you news and reviews from around the fest. You can follow us on twitter at @TwitchFilm | @BenUmstead | @AlexKoehne... More »