One of the greatest directors of the last four decades, Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s first feature film since 2007’s Flight of the Red Balloon immediately qualifies as one of his greatest achievements. The Assassin is a subtle, sparing, and at times abstract take on the ...

Equally impassioned as a detractor of Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void) and as a believer in the possibilities of 3D form in cinema, I was on the fence about even seeing the infamous provocateur’s new film, which premiered in Cannes in a midnight times...

The beginning of Arabian Nights Volume 3: The Enchanted One takes us closer to the character of Scheherazade (Crista Alfaiate), who went nearly unreferenced in part two. Here, she escapes the palace of the King to explore the world she is sheltered from, and f...

After seeing the packed narratives within narratives of part one, Arabian Nights Volume 2: The Desolate One seems, as Miguel Gomes himself suggested, a very different film, connected to the first by the framing device, theme and some of the performers (assumin...

Storytelling and its intricate connections to the real world have always preoccupied Miguel Gomes. Our Beloved Month of August (2008) tracks the obstacle-course production of a film set in a Portuguese village, revealing that there's a lot more drama surroundi...

There’s something confounding about Mountains May Depart, the latest film from Chinese master Jia Zhang-ke (Platform, Unknown Pleasures). In spite of its promising premise and formal expressiveness, there’s a tonal awkwardness that is hard to pin down as inten...

It has been five long years since Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s last feature, the stunning masterpiece Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. Now his much-anticipated follow-up has finally arrived, though, to everyone’s surpri...

Everything seems perfectly in place for Todd Haynes to deliver a great film in Carol. Excellent source material, strong actors, a period setting and milieu he proved himself adept at depicting in Mildred Pierce—a classical, straight up piece to show the other ...

A modest speaker despite his 50-year career, Sidney Lumet was never one to overstate his role as an auteur. In an extensive interview by David Anker, edited by Nancy Buirski into a new episode of the American Masters series, Lumet reveals his insights into fil...