Author: Alice W. Ragan

Adolescence What would lead a 13-year-old to commit murder? After achieving great success with the similarly one-take (and excellent) Boiling Point, director Philip Barantini reunites with Stephen Graham for Adolescence, a four-part….

Romería Beautifully Felt, But Emotionally Elusive Carla Simón’s Romería is a (very) quiet, introspective film that continues the director’s exploration of familial memory and loss, once again inspired by her own life,….

The Phoenician Scheme Even Lesser Wes Anderson Has Its Pleasures At this point—his 12th feature film—a lot has been said about Wes Anderson’s style becoming predictable, maybe even tired. The….

First Kill (2017) – A Father’s Fight in a Heist Gone Wrong! Action, Thriller, and Family Drama “A hunting trip turns deadly. When a father’s world collides with a desperate….

Predator 6: Blood Hunt (2025) “The hunt has evolved. So must we.” A top-secret special forces mission in the Congo jungle suddenly goes dark. As satellites scan the area, a….

Dangerous Animals A Relentless, Smartly Directed Shark Horror Survival thrillers like Dangerous Animals need to get three things right: they have to throw the protagonist into a tense, high-stakes situation we actually….

Woman and Child Soap Opera Thrills in Your Iranian Drama The second—and far less controlled—Iranian drama in Cannes’ 2025 Competition lineup is Saeed Roustaee’s Woman and Child, a film that, unlike the Palme….

It Was Just an Accident A Darkly Funny and Devastating Moral Puzzle Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, this year’s Palme d’Or winner, is another clandestinely crafted work from the….

Sirât Road Movie, Desert Rave, Existential Drama. A van cutting through the endless Moroccan desert. A father and son on a desperate quest. A group of nomads dancing through the….

The Plague Charlie Polinger’s unforgettable debut strips away the sugarcoating of adolescence In my pre-teen years, I caught the plague—and judging by how painfully authentic his debut feature The Plague feels, so….