Hesburgh | Film Festival Today

Jay Berg’s AFI DOCS 2018 Top Five

July 4, 2018

“Loves Company” Is Not Quite What It Seems
By Matt Patti
November 9, 2026
Loves Company (Jason Laurits, 2026) 3 out of 5 stars We all know the common phrase that alludes to experiencing trouble and wanting to share it with others and/or be around those having the same issue. Well, with director Jason Laurits’ debut feature Loves Company, and with the fact that the synopsis of his film involves a crazed fan meeting their idol and nursing him back to health after a car crash, the parallels are all too obvious: this film ... >>
“De Gaulle: Résistance” Is Best off the Battlefield
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
November 5, 2026
De Gaulle: Résistance (Antonin Baudry, 2026) 3 out of 5 stars I am half-French, born to an American father and French mother, and spent my childhood in the company of my maternal grandparents, who took me with them on summer vacations through the Hexagon while telling tales of their country’s past. They venerated Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French during World War II and then head of the post-war Provisional Government and, later, ... >>
Middleburg Review: “Minotaur”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 29, 2026
Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2026) 4 out of 5 stars Among the many horrible things happening right now in the world—beyond the rise of right-wing movements, bad enough in and of themselves—is Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Old men who wish to avoid consequences for their failures at home often choose to attack enemies, foreign and/or domestic. Such blatant corruption needs a carefully constructed framework to thrive, and in ... >>
“Crossing a Dawn” Reveals Hidden Depths
By George W. Campbell
October 23, 2026
Crossing a Dawn (Zhao Badou, 2026) 4 out of 5 stars It feels like an understatement to say that dating in the 2020s can feel impossible. On top of safety concerns, the scene is full of people desperate for connection yet terrified of what that actually entails. So, in the unlikely event you meet the perfect person, what happens if you’ll only ever know them for one night? This is the question writer/director Zhao Badou poses in his feature ... >>
Middleburg Review: “Fatherland”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 21, 2026
Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2026) 4½ out of 5 stars I confess that I have never read any works by German writer Thomas Mann (1875-1955), the 1929 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, though I have had, over the years, a few of them on my bookshelf, such as The Magic Mountain and Doctor Faustus. I tried at one point to watch Italian director Luchino Visconti’s 1971 adaptation of Mann’s Death in Venice but never made it very far. It is ... >>

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