Year: 2024 Runtime: 120 minutes Written and directed by: Sandhya Suri Starring: Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar By Sarah Manvel While “All We Imagine As Light” grabbed most of the attention at this year’s Cannes Film Festival by being the movie in competition made by a female Indian director, “Santosh,” which was also made by a female Indian director was also in competition (in the Un … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: Santosh
Year: 2024 Runtime: 168 minutes Written and directed by: Mohammad Rasoulof Starring: Missagh Zareh, Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghirad By Sarah Manvel It is unusual to recommend seeing a movie for the principle of the thing, but “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is one of those recommendations. It absolutely must be seen by anyone who cares about human rights … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Year: 2024 Runtime: 98 minutes Written by: Samuel Doux and Céline Sallette Directed by: Céline Sallette Starring: Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Judith Chemla, Damien Bonnard, Alain Fromager By Sarah Manvel If you’ve been in a major European city you’ve probably seen some of Niki de Saint-Phalle’s sculptures. Her most famous ones, of women’s bodies, large and curvaceous, painted in ludicrously bright colours, are called … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: Niki
Year: 2024 Directed by: Ali Abbasi Written by: Gabriel Sherman Starring: Sebastian Stan, Martin Donovan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Charlie Carrick By Sarah Manvel Ali Abbasi is a Danish-Iranian filmmaker who made a huge splash at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 with “Holy Spider,” a based-on-a-true-story crime thriller which won Best Actress for Zar Amir Ebrahimi. He returned to Cannes this year for a … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: The Apprentice
Year: 2024 Runtime: 120 minutes Written and directed by: Christophe Honoré Starring: Hugh Skinner, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Nicole Garcia, Fabrice Luchini, Benjamin Biolay, Melvil Poupaud By Sarah Manvel If you ever wanted to see Harry from “Fleabag,” I mean Hugh Skinner, play beach volleyball with Catherine Deneuve, then “Marcello Mio” is for you. But that’s not even in the top ten of the weirdest … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: Marcello Mio
Year: 2024 Runtime: 116 minutes Written and directed by: Halfdan Ullman Tøndel Starring: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Øystein Røger, Vera Veljovic By Sarah Manvel Armand, the six-year-old at the center of this story, is never seen. But he and another six-year-old boy named Jon are the focus of this strange and dreamlike Norwegian film. The trouble is that the way … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: Armand
Year: 2024 Runtime: 115 minutes Written and directed by: Payal Kapadia Starring: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Hridhu Haroon, Chhaya Kadam By Sarah Manvel If you don’t watch Indian movies you have no idea what you’re missing. “All We Imagine as Light” is the first movie by an Indian director to compete at Cannes in 30 years, which is a very big deal. What’s even more … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: All We Imagine As Light
Year: 2024 Directed by: Noémie Merlant Written by: Noémie Merlant and Céline Sciamma Starring: Noémie Merlant, Souheila Yacoub, Sanda Codreanu, Lucas Bravo, Christophe Montenez, Nadège Beausson-Diagne By Sarah Manvel Noémie Merlant cowrote, directed and stars in “The Balconettes,” a horror comedy in which she exposes all of her body, and I mean all of it. None of that exposure is done in a sexual way, but if any … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: The Balconettes / Les Femmes au Balcon
Year: 2024 Runtime: 91 minutes Written and directed by: Paul Schrader Starring: Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli, Victoria Hill, Jacob Elordi, Kristine Froseth, Jake Weary, Penelope Mitchell, Caroline Dhavernas By Sarah Manvel There’s an enormous amount of art about men doing bad things, but there’s not a tremendous amount of art about men reflecting on the bad things they’ve done. Director Paul Schrader has … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: Oh, Canada
Year: 2024 Runtime: 95 minutes Written and directed by: Rungano Nyoni Starring: Susan Chardy, Roy Chisha, Elizabeth Chisela, Henry B. J. Phiri, Doris Naulapwa, Esther Singini, Norah Mwansa By Sarah Manvel Sometimes the only possible way to handle dark topics is through comedy. Just as we cannot look directly at the sun lest we burn our eyes, we cannot talk about the sexual abuse of … Continue reading Cannes Film Festival 2024: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
In Their Own League 