Adrián García Bogliano’s SCHERZO DIABOLICO can best be described as a near-perfect engine of human cruelty. Any other attempt to qualify it within the terms of established genre traditions are futile. Is it an abduction procedural? A psychological character study of a criminal à la John McNaughton’s HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986)? A female revenge thriller? SCHERZO DIABOLICO is all three and

On August 24, 1992 the German city of Rostock was slammed by a wave of xenophobic riots which culminated in the burning of a residential building housing over 120 Vietnamese immigrants. Known as “The Night of Fire,” it was a defining moment in post-reunification German history. 23 years later, Burhan Qurbani reconstructs the events of that terrible night with his film We Are Young. We Are Strong. As an American who had never heard of this event before, I

On Friday Gren Wells's "The Road Within," a low-key dramedy about affliction adapted from the 2010 German film "Vincent Goes to Sea," opened in New York and Los Angeles. It stars the young, promising Irish actor Robert Sheehan as a teenager stricken with Tourette's, whose cold-hearted father (Robert Patrick of "Terminator 2": Judgment Day") installs him in a mental clinic after his mother dies.

Laura Bispuri's SWORN VIRGIN ("vergine giurata" in the original italian title) feels incomplete, a partial film missing a final reel. SWORN centers on Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), a young Albanian woman who invokes the traditional right for females to become honorary males known as “burrnesh” in exchange for taking an oath of virginity. Years later Hana, now known as "Mark," flees the countryside to live in Italy and rediscover her lost femininity.

This year’s Cannes Selection was announced this morning and in fact features a less american-centric selection of films than in years past. That’s not to say Cannes's programmers won’t indulge a little of their flair for filmmakers representative of the commercially-viable but frankly independent fringe made in USA. Two of our best filmmakers alive today, Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes, will be both competing for the Palme D’Or

For the first time in its history a female director will open the Cannes Festival. "La Tête haute," ("head held up high" in the original French) a film by a Frenchwoman, Emmanuelle Bercot, will open the 68th edition of the Cannes Festival, according to the press release received just moments ago from the festival's press office. "La Tête haute" is a coming-of-age story about a juvenile delinquent who haphazardly goes

I’m sorry, but any movie with Nick Kroll in it [...]