Hammer to Nail

Oscar-winning director Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida; Cold War) is back at the helm with a stunning new 20th-century-set drama shot in his signature black-and-white. Fatherland centers on life in post-World War II where Erika Mann (Sandra Hüller) accompanies her father, famed writer...

“Enjoy it those of you who are alive. The world is fantastic.” — (at the time) oldest person Maria Branyas Morera [via social media] A decade in the making—from July 2015 to July 2025—or a lifetime. Several lifetimes, admittedly! Individually...

The Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF) marked its 50th anniversary last year and now is back again, running September 10-20, with 293 films (shorts and features) in its official slate. As always, Hammer to Nail will offer coverage of...

In 1989, Julie Thayer traveled to the Swiss Alps looking for something few people would willingly seek: the destruction of her own ego. There, she joined U.G. Krishnamurti, the radical Indian anti-guru who rejected virtually every convention associated with spiritual...

(The 2026 Venice Film Festival runs September 2-9 on the island of the Lido di Venezia (Venice Lido) in Italy. HtN has coverage coming in like M.J. O’Toole’s Burgundy movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)...

Mas Bouzidi’s Concessions is a love letter to movie theaters wrapped in the melancholy of their disappearance. Shot entirely on 16mm at the Lafayette Theater in upstate New York, the film chronicles the final day at the closing Royal Alamo...

Winner of the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, directing duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s (aka Los Javis) La Bola Negra is an epic like no other. Set in the directors’ native Spain, it follows the...

The Venice Film Festival begins today and HTN’s very own M.J. O’Toole is on the Lido, taking in world premieres and all the Italian pasta he can eat. Hopefully the films this year will be as spicy as the arugula,...

Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) returned to Cannes this year with his newest intense drama, and left with his second Palme d’Or. Set in a Norwegian coastal town, Fjord stars Sebastian Stan and Renate...

The 9th Annual Lonely Seal Film Festival kicks off Thursday, August 27 and runs through Sunday, August 30 at the Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts which is less than 30 minutes from Boston.  This festival, focused on four days of...