At sea: Tsuchimoto’s docs about the pollution crisis in Minamata, Japan are must-see case studies for a contemporary world faced with its own “disasters of disinvestment“
Hot air: Alejandro G. Iñarritu’s semi-autobiographical fever dream, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, is essentially an overstuffed, self-indulgent concoction
Dig it: the happenings at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet remain as strange and bitingly funny as ever in The Kingdom Exodus, the anticipated third season of Lars von Trier’s series
Industrial strength: the new mega-sequel struggles with both the loss of its predecessor’s leading man and the roteness that afflicts any entry in the self-perpetuating Marvel Cinematic Universe
Face the past: The Tamil filmmaker’s latest is an intricate, star-studded period epic, and yet another triumph in an extensive filmography characterized by a masterful blending of convention, innovation, and integrity
Fictional characters: Hong Sangsoo’s latest, The Novelist’s Film, is a work of deceptive minimalism, inflected with themes of aging, mortality, and the high stakes of art-making
The good old days: in Armageddon Time, James Gray offers a new, messily autobiographical spin on his career-long preoccupation with the complexities of family and the quest for autonomy
Through the looking glass: Jafar Panahi’s No Bears offers a timely story about the real and imagined borders—national, social, religious—that constrict the freedoms of Iranians
Sign up for the Film Comment Letter
Thoughtful, original film criticism delivered straight to your inbox each week.