The Film Stage

Cannes Review: Harris Dickinson’s Urchin is a Thoughtful and Adventurous Directorial Debut
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A few scenes into Urchin, we take a trip through the Bardo. First the camera (as in a million films before this) closes in on a shower drain, but then something new: a tunnel of darkness and color that gives...
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Cannes Review: Peak Everything is a Romantic Dramedy That Finds Levity in the Anxieties of Societal Ills
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While there’s the oft-repeated observation that every generation thinks they are living through the end of the world, the maelstrom of anxieties (both quotidian and universal) in today’s age is particularly concerning, even debilitating for many to comprehend. Anne Émond’s...
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MUBI’s June 2025 Lineup Includes Twin Peaks, Việt and Nam, Gregg Araki & More
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MUBI’s June 2025 selections have arrived, featuring the previously announced mammoth drop of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks: Season 1 & 2 and Twin Peaks: The Return. Additional highlights include Trương Minh Quý’s acclaimed second feature Việt and...
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Cannes Review: Eagles of the Republic is a Playful Comedy-Thriller About an Egyptian Movie Star
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George Fahmy (Fares Fares) is an A-list movie star of the highest order, something Eagles of the Republic establishes at the jump. We open on him with a beautiful woman in a convertible on a soundstage, wrapping a glamorous film...
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Cannes Review: The Phoenician Scheme Finds Wes Anderson Losing the Plot in Breakneck, Tiresome Spy Comedy
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We begin with music that’s uncharacteristically tense for a Wes Anderson film––chugging cellos leading a full orchestra that’s more Mission: Impossible than Moonrise Kingdom––and opener à la Nolan blockbusters: an assassination attempt. It’s an exhilarating launch into a story that...
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4K Restoration Trailer for Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse Explores the Tumultuous Making of Francis Ford Coppola’s War Epic
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It was just a week ago that we got news that Mike Figgis’ documentary Megadoc, exploring the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-works passion project Megalopolis, would be arriving in theaters. First, however, one of the greatest portraits of moviemaking...
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Lee Chang-dong Plans Fall Shoot for Next Film Possible Love
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While it’s been an interminably long seven years since 2018’s Burning premiered at Cannes Film Festival, Lee Chang-dong has kept busy. A quartet of restorations of his early films recently debuted, while a collection of his short stories was released...
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First Teaser Trailer for Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Set for October 2025 Release
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Set for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today, Alpha provides Julia Ducournau the unenviable task of following 2021’s Palme d’Or winner Titane. Starring Mélissa Boros, Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield, the film now...
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Cannes Review: Pillion is a Provocative, Funny, and Touching Anti-Romance
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It wouldn’t be Cannes without a good scandal film. For 2025, British director Harry Lighton’s feature debut Pillion may be the one that sends the most people clutching their pearls. Centered on a dom-sub relationship within the gay biker milieu,...
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The Coen Brothers Will Reunite, When the Time is Right
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The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and Ethan Coen will have the distinction of capping off the year’s finest in cinema with a midnight premiere (this Friday) of his next solo-directing effort, Honey Don’t. Written with his partner Tricia Cooke,...
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