fantasy | Film Festival Today

Series Review: Season 2 of “The Witcher” Trades Strangeness for Stability

December 15, 2021

SXSW Review: Mother Earth Strikes Back in “Gaia”

March 23, 2021

SXSW Review: “The Spine of Night” Offers a Fantastical Vision to Celebrate

March 21, 2021

Film Review: “Wolfwalkers” Enchants with Unique Magic

December 10, 2020

Series Review: “Julie and the Phantoms” Makes Magic out of Narrative Madness

September 9, 2020

Film Review: “Judy & Punch” Gives the Classic Puppet Show a Proper Feminist Twist

June 4, 2020

Film Review: The Delightfully Odd World-Building of “Onward” Dazzles More Than It Doesn’t

March 5, 2020

Film Review: “White Snake” Is a Charming, Fantastical Chinese Adventure

November 28, 2019

Interview with “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” Director Mohammad Rasoulof
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
January 16, 2025
Iranian Director Mohammad Rasoulof (Evil Does Not Exist) premiered his latest feature, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. I reviewed it out of the Toronto International Film Festival, in September. As he discusses in the press notes, the film almost landed him in prison for 8 years, given its politically fraught subject matter. Fortunately, Rasoulof was able to flee Iran and now resides in Germany. Thanks to the German ... >>
Mental Horror Shines in “The Damned”
By Patrick Howard
January 8, 2025
The Damned (Thordur Palsson, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars The Damned is a bleak horror film that explores the theme of choice and its repercussions. Eva (Odessa Young, Shirley) leads a remote fishing community in Iceland. When the residents witness a ship sinking off the coast, they must confront a harrowing decision. As they grapple with the remorse of their actions, the group begins to feel as though they are being punished for their cruelty. ... >>
Interview with “Santosh” Director Sandhya Suri
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
December 23, 2024
Director Sandhya Suri premiered her debut narrative feature, Santosh, at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. I reviewed it at the Toronto International Film Festival, in September. As I wrote in that review, “The titular lead character [Shahana Goswami, Zwigato] is a woman forced to navigate the patriarchal demands of the workplace after her husband, a constable, is killed during a riot.” She encounters deep misogyny within the ranks, as well as ... >>
Interview with “Super/Man” Co-Director Peter Ettedgui
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
December 16, 2024
Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui collaborated on what is one of the most powerful documentaries of the year, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (which I reviewed out of DC/DOX). In it, they chronicle the highs and lows of actor Christopher Reeve’s life, including both before and after the tragic 1995 horse-riding that paralyzed him from the neck down. Including poignant interviews with his three children and ample footage from his ... >>
Romance Meets Coming-of-Age in “Young Werther”
By Robin C. Farrell
December 12, 2024
Young Werther (José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve heard of the 1774 novella The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, to get swept up in its lavish modernization, Young Werther. Written and directed by José Lourenço in his feature-film debut, the film introduces Werther (Douglas Booth, Shoshana), a lively socialite as well as an aspiring but insecure writer, as ... >>

10 Films to Watch at Sundance 2025
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I have never wrestled so much over what was going to ...>>
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Where I have previously reviewed the film (in this ...>>