Ioncinema

The Devil and Donald Trump: Abbasi Reconstructs the Rise of a Crony Capitalist Among the many wise observations written by nineteenth century Englishman Lord Acton, he noted “Great men are almost always bad men…” But what if they were just...

Will You Be My Ride or Die?: Chevrollier Ramps Up the Chaos in Portrait of Sons & Missing Fathers Exploring themes of rebellion, shame, and unresolved anguish, La Pampa (aka Block Pass) delves into the profound challenges of articulating inner...

Breaking Up is Hard To Do: Trueba Reinvents Couple Goals Gloriously reminding us that we are doomed to repeat the same existential mundane experiences, in an amuse bouche format with winks to Danish philosopher Sören Kierkegaard and relationship woe cinema...

Diamonds Are Not Forever: Lund Looks Beyond America’s Favorite Pastime Even with a full count of three balls and two strikes, it may seem like the stakes are low, but the never-mentioned patriarchal foundations are rife with uncertainty in filmmaker...

Many were left scratching their heads when Cannes topper Thierry Frémaux made The Substance a part of the competition (and conversation) and the reason being that while the midnight films are a welcome inclusion in the overall line-up of the...

Woman of Substance: Fargeat Rejuvenates Body Horror with Pulpy Parable To borrow a succinct phrase from Beyonce, ‘pretty hurts,’ a sentiment quivering through Coraline Fargeat’s morbidly entertaining sophomore feature, The Substance. Its simplistic title eventually reveals itself to be a...

Crazy On You: Kandhari’s Strange Fantasy of Madness It’s been nearly twenty years since director Karan Kandhari’s 2005 debut Bye Bye Miss Goodnight (since then working on short films and music videos, including Franz Ferdinand’s “Stand on the Horizon”). He’s back with...

Thierry Frémaux sure does like mister Kirill Serebrennikov. Since showcasing The Student in 2016’s Un Certain Regard section, the Russian filmmaker (in exile) has been a fixture in the competition section (there was even the rumor he might showcase his...

Straightened Story: Lojkine’s Details Delivery App Woes to Application Process Lows Standing on fertile creative ground, Boris Lojkine once again explores the narratives of individuals far removed from their comfort zones, miles away from the familiar landscapes. Following 2014’s Hope...

His has a longstanding tradition with the Cannes Film Festival this former Palme d’Or winner for Dheepan (2015) moved into a completely different language, backdrop setting and new genre with the musical for a project that was born during the...