The Film Stage

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 NYFF coverage. The Damned opens in theaters on May 16. Robert Minervini’s The Damned begins with two wolves tearing into a elk carcass, ripping off its fur and chewing its intestines....

Frequent festival-goers learn to not expect much from opening films. Truth is, quality is but one of many factors that lead to the selection for this symbolic slot. In order to avoid offending sensibilities and setting a controversial tone for...

Having found success with Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and an IB Technicolor print of Marlon Brando’s One-Eyed Jacks, it seemed only logical to play the middle ground: in collaboration with the Roxy Cinema, The Film Stage is proud to present...

As legacy horror franchises attempt to worm their way back into the public imagination with largely unsatisfying reboot-sequel hybrids, bringing characters old and new together, alarm bells should have been ringing at the prospect of a new Final Destination. With...

Perhaps no North American distributor does better to enrich film culture than Arbelos, whose major run of restorations continues with The Sealed Soil. Marva Nabili’s 1977 film is the oldest surviving feature directed by an Iranian woman, which is to...

One of the best first features in recent memory, Sarah Friedland’s wonderfully gentle Familiar Touch premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it picked up Best Director, Best Actress, and Best First Film in the Orizzonti section. After opening New...

It looks like Cannes was saving our most-anticipated premiere for last: it was just announced last week that Bi Gan’s sci-fi detective tale Resurrection has been added to the main competition. With a score by M83 and cast including Jackson Yee, Shu...

20 years ago, 20th Century Fox began the summer-blockbuster season with a sword-and-sandals epic about the Crusades. Kingdom of Heaven‘s pedigree was impressive, if not bulletproof. Ridley Scott was only five years on from his Best Picture-winning Gladiator (not to...

In a city where the rents are too high, the subways are too slow, and morale barely hovers above cope, repertory options might make such troubles worthwhile. So one thinks while looking over Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us, a...

Recent times have been a boon for films by or about Indian women. On top of Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine As Light, 2024 also saw the premiere or release of Suchi Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls, Sandhya...