Flicks with The Film Snob

Jesse Eisenberg has an odd sense of humor. His latest film, his second as writer and director, is called A Real Pain, and the title doubles as serious statement and casual joke. Eisenberg plays a gen…

French director Mia Hansen-Løve has become one of my favorite filmmakers. Her stories about “ordinary” life and relationships, and her style, are so relaxed and organic that the world inside her film…

The Seventh Seal was Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s seventeenth film, made in 1957, and it was the first to propel him to international fame. It’s easy to see why. A film of intense, dreamlike ima…

A film of political intrigue dramatizes the tortuous process by which the cardinals of the Catholic Church choose a new Pope.

Selecting a new Pope seems a ripe subject for drama because of the air of…

A documentary explores the many aspects of women’s health care in a Paris gynecological ward.

The best documentaries go beyond our desire to be entertained by a subject, like the way something unfami…

A Georgian woman searches for her runaway niece in Istanbul, in this tender love letter to transgender communities in Georgia and Turkey.

Levan Akin is a Swedish director and screenwriter of Georgia…

This satire on the exaggerated standard of female beauty is a science fiction horror film in which a new kind of drug replaces an aging actress (Demi Moore) with a younger sexier version of herself.

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David Lean’s 1954 version of a play about a familial tyrant features one of Charles Laughton’s best roles.

In 17th century England, a man named Hobson rented out horses to Cambridge students, but to …

A college professor moonlights as an undercover cop posing as a contract killer, in Richard Linklater’s genial spoof.

Austin, Texas native Richard Linklater has managed to achieve remarkable success …

A unique kind of American immigrant, a woman that worked for the U.S. military as a translator in Afghanistan and now lives in exile, is the main character in the latest film from Iranian British dir…

The epic story of a Siberian village, from before the Soviet revolution to the 1960s.

I’ve long been interested in Russian film, including films from the Soviet era. But I’ve only recently begun to e…

In 1988, a British high school teacher faces the threat of being outed as a lesbian.

When considering the progress of gay rights, it’s important to remember how long LGBT people have had to hide the…

Two young men on a vacation at the shore are surprised that there is a woman renting one of the rooms at their cottage.

With each new film, Christian Petzold increases his stature as the foremost 21s…

A gang of women steal oil from Brazilian pipelines, refining it into gas to be sold on the black market.

On a firelit night in an unnamed town, we see people taking oil from a tapped pipeline and pou…

A conflict develops in a West African village between the women devoted to the water goddess Mami Wata, and the men who condemn their practice as mere superstition. Mami Wata, a film by Nigerian wri…

Edited footage from outtakes of an interview of Thelonious Monk reveal the contrast between the artist and the demands on his personal presentation.

I’ve seen plenty of documentaries about musicians,…

A young man plots to become a duke by killing everyone ahead of him in the line of succession, in this delightful comedy that features Alec Guinness in multiple roles.

British film comedy came into i…

An ex-con mother raises her son in Harlem after stealing him from a foster home.

A woman is released from Rikers Island prison in New York in 1994 after doing time for a theft charge. Inez, played by…

A man enjoys a life of solitude and labor cleaning public toilets in Tokyo.

As the film Perfect Days begins, the morning light awakens a man named Hirayama, who sits quietly on his sleeping mat for a…

A drama about the evolution of a motorcycle group in the ’60s, from club to gang.

Jeff Nichols’ films are known for their gritty working class flavor. His latest one, The Bikeriders, is based on a bo…