drama I Am Kalam 11 Jan 2021 "Do you believe that destiny makes a man, or his actions?" ★★★★ Nila Madhab Panda's Indian drama I Am Kalam (2010) was produced by the charity Smile Foundation, an NGO…
comedy Rose Island 6 Jan 2021 "The important thing is to change the world" ★★★★ Sydney Sibilia's 2020 comedy-drama Rose Island (Italian: L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose) tells the incredible true story of the Republic of Rose…
romance Your Name Engraved Herein 28 Dec 2020 "Maybe more people would understand me in hell" ★★★★★ Kuang-Hui Liu's 2020 Taiwanese romantic drama Your Name Engraved Herein was released on Netflix only a few days before Christmas, but…
animation The Breadwinner 23 Dec 2020Dec 23, 2020 "Raise your words, not your voice" ★★★★★ Nora Twomey's 2017 film The Breadwinner is an animation based on Deborah Ellis' 2000 novel of the same name. Taking on a war-ravaged…
drama In The Name Of 16 Dec 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Every day we die and are reborn again" ★★★★★ Małgorzata Szumowska's 2013 Polish drama In The Name Of (Polish: W Imię) brings together Poland's two clashing entities - the Church…
romance Rafiki 11 Dec 2020Dec 21, 2020 "I wish this was real" ★★★★ Wanuri Kahiu's 2018 romance Rafiki (Swahili for 'friend') was banned in its native Kenya. As the director stated in an interview with TIFF, this…
drama Atlantics 7 Dec 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Some memories are omens" ★★★★★ In an interview with Netflix, director Mati Diop stated that she wanted to dedicate her supernatural romantic drama Atlantics (French: Atlantique, 2019) to the lost…
comedy The Favourite 4 Dec 2020Dec 21, 2020 "We'll make a killer of you yet" ★★★★ Yorgos Lanthimos' dark comedy The Favourite (2018) hones in on one of history's most intricate power plays - one that took place…
drama The Salvation 30 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Never start a fight you can't win" ★★★★ There are very few twists one can subject a western film to these days. Doing so would require the contortion of an…
comedy Brahman Naman 27 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "What is the colour of colour TV?" ★★★★ Quashiq Mukherjee's English-language Indian sex comedy Brahman Naman (2016) is set in 1980's Bangalore, and illuminates the psyches of four teenage boys…
thriller The Usual Suspects 23 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist" ★★★★ Bryan Singer's (X-Men, Bohemian Rhapsody) neo-noir thriller The Usual Suspects (1995) got its title from…
romance Happy Together 20 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Turns out lonely people are all the same" ★★★★★ Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong romance Happy Together (1997) stores most of its meaning in its title. The English translation was inspired…
thriller The Girl in the Fog 16 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "The devil's greatest flaw is his vanity" ★★★★★ Donato Carrisi not only penned the 2015 novel that inspired the Italian psychological thriller The Girl in the Fog (Italian: La ragazza…
drama The Wife 13 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "The public can't stomach bold prose from a woman" ★★★★★ The dazzling appeal of Björn L. Runge's drama The Wife (2017) rests in Glenn Close's reflections on her character, which…
sci-fi The Wandering Earth 9 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "It is unreasonable to expect humans to stay reasonable" ★★★★ Frant Gwo's Chinese sci-fi action film The Wandering Earth (2019) is based on Liu Cixin's 2000 novella of the same…
romance Vita & Virginia 4 Nov 2020Dec 21, 2020 "If you leave me stranded, I will hurt you" ★★★ Chanya Button's biographical romantic drama Vita & Virginia (2018) portrays the love affair between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sachville-West, which…
animation Blame! 30 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "They say they will do what the humans say. That's a good thing, right?" ★★★★★ Hiroyuki Seshita's Japanese CGI anime Blame! (2017) is based on the ten-volume manga of the…
comedy Toc Toc 28 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "That's why I'm here. To be reprogrammed." ★★★★★ Toc Toc (2017), the Spanish comedy written and directed by Vicente Villanueva, is based on Laurent Baffie's 2005 French play of the…
drama The Emperor of Paris 23 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Serve your country or remain mediocre" ★★★★ Jean-François Richet's 2018 historical drama The Emperor of Paris (French: L'Empereur de Paris) puts a modern spin on the tale of the historical…
thriller Eastern Promises 19 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Anger is dangerous. It makes people do stupid things." ★★★★ Congruent with David Cronenberg's other projects, such as The Fly (1986) or Dead Ringers (1988), the 2007 British-Canadian co-production Eastern…
romance Below Her Mouth 14 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "I'm going to starve to death in your bed" ★★★★ April Mullen's Canadian erotic romance Below Her Mouth (2016) is known for its all-female ensemble, with the film being written,…
horror Escape Room 12 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Surviving is a choice. Make yours." ★★★ Following the tragic escape room disaster that claimed the lives of five teenage girls in a blazing fire, it's no wonder that the…
Series Tempted 6 Oct 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Running in the rain is just like going through something that is going to happen anyway" ★★★ Kang In's 2018 South Korean series Tempted (original title: Widaehan Yuhokja) is loosely…
comedy The Commitments 30 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "The Irish are the blacks of Europe, Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the North Siders are the blacks of Dublin." ★★★★★ Alan Parker's The Commitments (1991) offers a…
horror Slaughterhouse Rulez 24 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "This is war. No, this is Sparta." ★★★ Bringing back the comedic duo from Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead (2004) sounds like the greatest idea since sliced bread, enriching…
romance Palm Trees in the Snow 18 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Life is a tornado. Peace, fury...and then peace again." ★★★★★ Fernando González Molina's Spanish romantic drama Palm Trees in the Snow (Spanish: Palmeras en la nieve, 2015) is based on…
sci-fi Advantageous 15 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Humans can only grasp change at a rate they've experienced" ★★★ In an interview with Variety, Jacqueline Kim, who co-wrote the 2015 sci-fi drama Advantageous with the film's director Jennifer…
comedy Blind Date 12 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "We're stuck together by an architectural anomaly" ★★★★ In a promotional interview with Purepeople, the two stars of Clovis Cornillas' 2015 French romantic comedy Blind Date (French: Un peu, beaucoup,…
drama Arctic 9 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Don't worry, they'll be here tomorrow - or the day after tomorrow - don't worry" ★★★★ It's no surprise that when discussing Joe Penna's Icelandic survival drama Arctic (2018) with…
sci-fi Tenet 6 Sep 2020Jan 11, 2021 "We all believe we’d run into the burning building. But until we feel that heat, we can never know. You do." ★★★ Christopher Nolan is known for exploring the concept…
action The International 3 Sep 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to avoid it" ★★ Tom Tykwer's 2009 action thriller The International was inspired by the Bank of Credit…
thriller The 9th Precinct 31 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "One gets confused when one has just died" ★★★★ Wandering ghosts, though also present in the Western culture in the form of The Sixth Sense (1999) and Ghost (1990), to…
drama The Devil’s Mistress 24 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "War is the most shameful thing on earth, whichever side one is on" ★★ To dub or not to dub? That is the question for the Czech film industry. Perhaps…
thriller Children of Men 18 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Everything is a cosmic battle between faith and chance" ★★★ Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian thriller Children of Men (2006), based on P. D. James' The Children of Men (1992), presents a…
comedy A Perfect Day 14 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Many people hate foreigners because they come with war" ★★★★★ The Spanish dark comedy-drama A Perfect Day (Spanish: Un Día Perfecto, 2015), written and directed by Fernando León de Aramoa,…
sci-fi OtherLife 11 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Fantasy and reality are chemically identical" ★★★★★ Ben C. Lucas' 2017 Australian sci-fi thriller OtherLife is loosely based on the novel Solitaire (2002) by Kelley Eskridge. Deeply influenced by The…
drama Alexandria: Again and Forever 7 Aug 2020Jan 11, 2021 "Suffering has its charms" ★★★★ Youssef Chahine's Egyptian drama Alexandria Again and Forever (1989) is the third and final entry in a trilogy of films, presenting a look-back at the…
romance Jodhaa Akbar 4 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Water and ambition have one thing in common. They are ever-swelling." ★★★★ Ashutosh Gowariker's epic historical romance Jodhaa Akbar (2008) is not only a production of inconceivable proportions, but it…
drama Attitude Test 1 Aug 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Education is like an erection. When you have it, it shows." ★★ Augusto Matte and Fabrizio Copano's 2016 Chilean drama Attitude Test (Spanish: Prueba de Actitud) seems like the love…
Film Liebster Award Nomination 30 Jul 2020Jul 30, 2020 Thank you, 18cinemalane, for the Liebster Award nomination! I am truly grateful for the time you have taken to read my reviews. The Liebster Award logo can be found at:…
thriller The Model 28 Jul 2020Dec 21, 2020 "I need you to be real bitches on this one" ★★★★ In the Danish thriller drama The Model (2016), director Mads Matthiesen takes a nosedive into the generally glamourised world…
comedy MILF 25 Jul 2020Dec 21, 2020 "You're not eighty. Everything is possible." ★★★ In an industry that celebrates youth and beauty, women over the age of forty usually end up playing the roles of mothers and…
sci-fi Multiplicity 21 Jul 2020Dec 21, 2020 "I trust him like I trust myself" ★★★★ Harold Ramis' (Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day) American sci-fi comedy Multiplicity (1996) takes the workaholic father trope and makes it do somersaults, spinning an…
horror Train to Busan 18 Jul 2020Dec 21, 2020 "Sorry, but you're infected" ★★★★★ Yeon Sang-ho's South Korean action-horror Train to Busan (2016) became the highest-grossing Korean film in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. And, seeing as its sequel…
