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

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.

A collaboration grew from inside a New York University graduate [...]

The other film produced by Gabe Cowan this year and shown at Tribeca (see our REVIEW of “just before I go”) is the clever and relatable “Loitering with Intent.”

The cast includes Ivan Martin and Michael Godere, who are the screenwriters of this film in real life, as two starving-artist screenwriters, named Raphael and Dominic, who after being offered the chance to sell a screenplay repair to the countryside to write it. Only, they’re met with anything but the hoped-for peace and quiet at their new address.

The title goes right to the point, as does this movie shown at Tribeca last week, which deals with a nerdy oddball named Clinton (played brilliantly by Fran Kranz), who discovers that his cat has been killed. In attempting to solve the murder of his furry and only friend Clinton unwittingly stumbles onto a series of events which lead him deeper into chaos, until his own life is at stake. He teams up with fellow cat lover Greta, played by Nikki Reed, his mother Edie (Blythe Danner)

In her directorial debut "Just Before I Go" Courteney Cox confronts her wealth of experience in comedy with the darker subject-matter of suicide with mitigated results.

Written by sitcom heavy David Flebotte ("Desperate Housewives," "Will and Grace") "Just Before I Go" is an unconvincing attempt to mollify the seriousness of suicide with humor. But directing a film that wants to make light