Foreign Movies
Foreign movie reviews of arthouse world cinema from an indie film perspective.
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Wish You Were Here
Kieran Darcy-Smith makes his feature film debut with his Australian indie drama Wish You Were Here, which first premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film’s non-linear narrative style is slow to reveal itself of the mysteries behind...
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A Royal Affair
Love, politics and religion set the stage for Nikolaj Arcel's A Royal Affair, Denmark's official entry into this year's Foreign Language Film race at the Academy Awards. Telling the true story of Queen Caroline Mathilde (Alicia Vikander) who, while...
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A Bittersweet Life
As I tracked back to the opening chapter of A Bittersweet Life, I paid attention to the wisdom that softened the silence in those few words. The film unfortunately walks about a narrower path in comparison to what I...
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Sister
The Swiss entry into this year's Foreign Language Film race at the Academy Awards, Sister could work almost as a companion piece to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's masterful The Kid With A Bike. This one also centers itself on...
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Memories of Murder
Joon-ho Bong has pulled off a sensational 120 minutes of a film that you just can’t afford to miss. With mystery, distress and tension, Memories of Murder, comes close to being one of the finest foreign thrillers that I’ve...
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Children Of Heaven
Having been greatly impressed by recent works such as A Separation and About Elly, I was curious to learn what other hidden gems I could uncover from Iranian cinema. After a little digging, I found Children of Heavenand I...
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Holy Motors
Holy Motors opens in a theater of unmoving bodies, an unseen film plays. A man wakes in a bed on a boat, uses the key he has in place of a finger and stumbles through the wall into the...
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Kwaidan
Don’t be fooled by the age, Kwaidan is one of the finest reasons to include Masaki Kobayashi in the contenders list for one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time. The movie, born in 1964 was awarded and...
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Bad Education
Back in 2005 the talented Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar made a film called Bad Education, which contains a film within a film and a story within a story based on the characters past without knowing much about their present....
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Motorway
Motorway by Pou-Soi Cheang is ferocious. Full of more testosterone than all 5 of the Fast and Furious films combined, the film never stops for a second. Cheang’s film is filled to the brim with exciting car chases; one after...
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Hermano
Hermano tells the story of two young men, Julio and Daniel, who are raised as brothers and have the unfortunate task of growing up in the very dangerous slums of Caracas. They find an escape in football (soccer). Both...
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Neighboring Sounds
The neighborhood watch has probably never felt as unsafe as it does in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds. The Brazilian drama, which snatched up a FIPRESCI prize at Rotterdam, is a well-done but a flawed debut feature. Filho shows...
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Footnote
Footnote is a film that requires a few days to digest whether it is a great film, or just a good film. As I watched the credits roll, I blinked a few times and said, “Huh,” and made myself...
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Monsieur Lazhar
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language was Philippe Flardeau’s 2011 film Monsieur Lazhar. The film centers on a classroom that must deal with a recent tragedy of their beloved teacher. Helping them cope with the loss is...
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Caché
The English title of the film is “Hidden” which accurately describes the film as a whole; there is a hidden camera that uncovers events in the main character’s past that are hidden from his wife. Michael Haneke’s Caché earned...
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Sleep Tight
When you’re a kid and your mother and father tuck you in for bed, you sometimes think there are monsters under your bed. This happened to me on many occasions, mainly because I have a wildly active imagination. Of...
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Children
Over the last decade, South Korean cinema has seen a sudden boom in quality. Their film industry has been churning out adult-oriented movies that combine a gorgeous, modern style with a more classical approach to storytelling. It’s a formula...
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Turn Me On, Dammit!
The traditional role of a teenage sex coming of age story tends to be centered around males but Turn Me On, Dammit! changes things up a bit by telling it from a female perspective. Adapted by the novel written...
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Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Never have I written so many notes for a film where so little happens than with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Mainly because I was struck over and over on how well shot the film is and how...
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Headshot
Headshot is self-described as crime noir film about an assassin who was shot in the head which ends up causing him to see the world upside down. Thailand’s Pen-Ek Ratanaruang chooses to present a slow burning film rather than...
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Code Blue
When Code Blue premiered at Cannes last year, a warning was posted outside the theatre saying the film might “hurt audience feelings.” The Cannes audiences always love a good provocation, and based on the reports coming out of the...
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Oslo, August 31st
Oslo, August 31st is magnificent. A film that succeeds on many levels. It is brilliantly made by its director Joachim Trier and brilliantly acted by his actors. I honestly don't know if I can even find anything wrong with...
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This Is Not A Film
By now all of the information surrounding This is Not a Film has been regurgitated in every review or article about it, but it’s necessary to know the context before watching it. Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director of...
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Womb
Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf’s Womb is a quiet, abstract, and eerie science fiction film about a woman who has a hard time of letting go. There is no doubt that it has drawn some controversy due to incest playing...
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Goodbye First Love
There is nothing overly complicated about the French film Goodbye First Love, a story about a young woman who is torn between two men, one of which is her fist love that she cannot seem to get over. The...
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The Woman in the Fifth
Pawel Pawlikowski returns after an eight-year hiatus with The Woman in the Fifth, a thriller that moves at a snail-like pace despite its 80 minute runtime. While its two strong lead performances help anchor the film, the storyline ranges...
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Michael
Markus Schleinzer deals with a topic that few others would touch with a ten foot pole in Michael, a film that’s caused a stir since its premiere at Cannes last year. Using the same clinical style that’s found in...
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Extraterrestrial
First of all let’s get something straight, Extraterrestrial does not have any aliens in it. In fact, the only real science fiction in the film is used to keep the characters locked in an apartment from fear of alien...
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The Road
Location-based horror is the name of the game for Yam Laranas’ new feature The Road, the first ever Filipino film to get a commercial U.S. release in theatres (a fact that’s more sad than shocking). Laranas, who is probably...
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Headhunters
Out of all the places in the world, one would not think of Scandinavia to be the prime export of thrillers in the world at the moment. But they are. Over the past 3-4 years high class films and television series...