“Bacurau” has been one of the richest cinematic experiences I've seen in a while, producing enormous feeling. And while the writing is slightly disheveled, this panoramic film is brimming with imagery of folklore, capoeira, community life and historical legacy. It’s a celebration of Brazilian sertao (outback) living, told from the viewpoints of several different people but not without its acidic share of tragedy.

Many a filmmaker has shot the inner city, the tough neighborhoods, in order to highlight the plight of the locals. In press documents for “Les Misérables” director Ladj Ly has said, “I hope the President [of France] watches the movie, so he can get a sense for what’s going on here.”Making movies is a personal project, innately, but not all stories are autobiographical. This one is. Ly has grown up in the same city of Montfermeil

CRITICS WEEK, Cannes - Amine, a man for whom life is a struggle of every instant (French-Moroccan actor Younes Bouab)—at least this is what his weary and beautiful gaze seems to say—is being pursued by the police somewhere in the Moroccan desert. He runs up to the top of a hill to bury his treasure before getting collared. A decade later, he comes out of jail and goes back to the hilltop to retrieve his treasure. Except that, during

Life sometimes requires us to swallow our ego, put out fires and resolve crises on a variety of fronts, family, work, children. How about if this were the case all the time? How do we confront these adversities, but more to the point, where do we find the gumption to do so?  In Franco Lolli’s very personal film “Litigante,” there’s something almost invasive about watching Silvia (Carolin Sanin) go through a life that seems to be getting

When planetary disaster strikes the planet, one turns to country-music for solace. The song in question was written by Grammy-nominated country music singer Sturgill Simpson and keeps making a comeback throughout “The Dead Don’t Die,” the new Jim Jarmusch film which opened the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The song, which shows up repeatedly in dialogues, on a CD that changes hands, is a mantra, something for

Academy Award nominees Annette Bening (“The Kids Are All Right,” “American Beauty”) and Michelle Pfeiffer (“Murder on the Orient Express”) have signed on to star in director Gideon Raff’s (“Homeland”, “Tyrant”, “Dig”, and the upcoming “The Red Sea Diving Resort” and “The Spy” thriller “Turn of Mind.” Adapted by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife,” “Quills”) and based on Alice LaPlante’s

Highland Film Group announced today that Jake Manley (“The Order,” Roland Emmerich’s upcoming "Midway") has joined Bella Thorne in writer/director Joshua Caldwell’s Southland. Colin Bates and Michael Jefferson of Lucidity Entertainment are producing alongside Thor Bradwell and Scott Levenson. Garrett Clayton, Katie Leary, Bennett Litwin and Adam Litwin will serve as executive producers.