Nicholas Bell

Plunder Years: Diop Reflects on the Complex Realities of Reparation

South Korean cinema has been exceptional for decades — we're just discovering it Written by Nicholas Bell |

All the Small Things: Mielants Mines the Evils of Complicity

There’s certainly a definable emotional core in Andrea Arnold ’s fifth narrative feature, Bird, but the ideas and themes tying it all together are about as wispy and freewheeling as scattered feathers drifting along the course of a gently idling wind. Once again mixing anthropomorphic inspired motifs with working class realities, Arnold’s new marriage of social miserabilism and magical realism sadly feels a bit exploitative as it rushes through thinly drawn characters and connections before gliding into a pat, feel-good resolution. Whether due to methods of improvisation without a clearly defined script or a rushed edit to make the demands of its world premiere, Arnold’s latest is something of a disappointment, playing as it does so fiercely into the eternally forgiving arena of the sentimental.

Eternity and a Day: Scott Rehashes the Dying Embers of an Empire

The Big City: Kapadia Designs Lovely Portrait of Friendship and Free Will

We sat with director Tia Kouvo to talk about her directorial debut, Family Time, which premiered in the Encounters program of the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival and selected as Finland’s official submission for consideration in the category of Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. Touching on the short film project which provided the initial impetus to expand it into a feature, Kouvo talks about shooting in her grandparents’ home alongside her returning DP Jesse Jalonen to craft the film’s intimate mise en scene. Kouvo also explains specific soundtrack selections and cinematic influences for her first film, which she describes as a more realistic film about familial Christmas traditions, but overall, a hopeful one.

We sat with director Soi Cheang to talk about his latest film, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which premiered in the Midnight section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and selected as Hong Kong’s official submission for consideration in the category of Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. Cheang clarifies some misconceptions on the project’s origins previously reported in the Western media while also touching on the significant set design of the film in reconstructing a specific portion of 1980s Hong Kong, Kowloon City. Cheang talks about working with the legendary Sammo Hung, as well as how the film’s significant box office success has generated plans for a franchise. Cheang also shares details about the current period piece he’s also shooting.

In conjunction with her new narrative feature No Address, which will be released in 2025, director Julia Verdin and co-director Stephen Wollwerth embarked on a simultaneous documentary project about homelessness across the country with Americans with No Address

The Traveler Has Come: Huppert Shines in Latest Collaboration with Sang-soo