ONE GIRL. ONE CITY. ONE NIGHT. ONE TAKE. After a night of dancing and drinking, Victoria (Laia Costa) leaves a club in Berlin and runs into four young men, which is the start of an intense adventure. One of few films shot in one continuous take, and it’s obvious how much hard work and preparation … Continue reading Victoria
WHAT IS THE COST OF LIES? After the premiere of this excellent miniseries, Chernobyl fever gripped the United States and Europe. There was a renewed interest in debating nuclear power and its awesome dangers, which came right at a time when the climate crisis demands fossil-free energy sources and some politicians argue that new nuclear … Continue reading Chernobyl: System Failure
NOVEMBER 26, 2008… TERROR STRUCK THE HEART OF INDIA. An ambitious thriller, inspired by a 2009 documentary, about the terror attacks in Mumbai 2008 that left hundreds of people dead. Focus lies on the dramatic events at the luxurious Taj Mahal hotel where armed men murdered tourists and took hostages while the authorities tried to … Continue reading Hotel Mumbai
HIS SCAR MARKED THEM BOTH! After a hit on a casino that goes wrong, John Muller (Paul Henreid) is on the run; by accident, he learns that there’s a dentist who looks almost like him, save for a scar on his face… Not one of the most well-known film noir thrillers of the 1940s, but … Continue reading Hollow Triumph
ONE MAN TRAPPED BY DESTINY, AND ANOTHER BOUND BY DUTY. THEY’RE ABOUT TO DISCOVER WHAT THEY’RE WILLING TO FIGHT, AND TO DIE FOR. New York City cop Tom O’Meara (Harrison Ford) and his family take in an Irish guest worker (Brad Pitt), not realizing that he is in fact an IRA terrorist on a mission… … Continue reading The Devil’s Own
When one of their neighbors suddenly dies, the Liptons (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton) begin to suspect that her husband is a killer… This hugely enjoyable but lightweight comedy with Hitchcockian flavors was originally going to be the story for Annie Hall (1977), but Allen found use for it a decade and a half later. Watching … Continue reading Manhattan Murder Mystery
YOU WON’T KNOW THE FACTS UNTIL YOU’VE SEEN THE FICTION. A few weeks before this year’s Cannes festival, where one of the most talked-about events will be Quentin Tarantino’s return with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I took the chance to revisit the film that really made his career. In 2019, there’s only one … Continue reading Pulp Fiction: Great Vengeance and Furious Anger
THE STORY BEHIND AMERICA’S MOST NOTORIOUS SERIAL KILLER. In the mid-70s, as police are doing their best to tie Ted Bundy (Zac Efron) to a series of murders, his girlfriend (Lily Collins) refuses to believe that he’s guilty. The unbelievable story of serial killer Ted Bundy explores his relationships with women and how he tried … Continue reading Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
YOUR HOUSE. HIS HOME. A San Francisco couple (Michael Ealy, Meagan Good) buy a beautiful old house in Napa Valley from Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid)… but he seems to have an awfully hard time leaving the place. The main attraction of this thriller may be watching Quaid as a nutjob doing his best to conceal … Continue reading The Intruder
In 2010, the Illegals Program was revealed in the United States. That was an investigation by the FBI uncovering and arresting ten Russian agents who had been living in the U.S. for years, posing as American citizens. As they went about their everyday lives they tried to obtain intelligence for Russia by making friends with … Continue reading The Americans: Suburban Spies
A surgeon’s (Colin Farrell) mysterious relationship with a teenage boy (Barry Keoghan) results in a prediction that his family will die unless he ”balances” an incident in his past. Yorgos Lanthimos and his co-writer continue in the same vein as The Lobster (2015) – an absurd story told in an amusingly rational way, which is … Continue reading The Killing of a Sacred Deer
ALL ROADS LEAD HERE. In 1969, a motley group of people gather in an otherwise empty hotel straddling the California-Nevada border; they all have different agendas. The director’s first film since The Cabin in the Woods (2012) seems above all inspired by Tarantino. Drew Goddard grabs our attention instantly, and for a long while we … Continue reading Bad Times at the El Royale
HE WENT SEARCHING FOR LOVE… BUT FATE FORCED A DETOUR TO REVELRY… VIOLENCE… MYSTERY! Pianist Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is headed to California where his girlfriend is trying to launch a career, but an unexpected death changes the journey… One of the most famous films that Edgar G. Ulmer made has become perhaps the most … Continue reading Detour
