"Alamar", the second film by director Pedro González-Rubio, deceived me. From a distance it seemed something superficial. A film that grabs its audience by merely setting it in a location many would like to spend their holiday; an idyllic coral... More >>

With all the (deserved) media attention "Un Prophète" has been getting you'd almost think it is the only prison drama worth watching this year. But even at the International Film Festival Rotterdam it wasn't isolated in its genre, as the... More >>

Lourdes tracks the pilgrimage of wheelchair-bound Christine (Sylvie Testud) to the titular holy town in the south-west of France, accompanied by a disparate group of both sick and healthy. Not of particularly strong faith herself, she sees the trip...

Oxide and Danny Pang are known to go berserk when they can get their itching hands on CG, with varying results. It's not that they lack creative vision, but their budget doesn't always allow for great excesses. The Storm Warriors...

By Charles WebbI was surprised to learn that Kim Ki-Duk was not only the producer for Beautiful, but the film's writer as well. I was surprised because the writer-director's normally masterful control and focus - present in wrenching dramas...

[Our thanks to Peter Galvin for offering his review to the Twitch readership.] From Paris With Love concerns the forced pairing of a straight-laced ambassador's aide (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) with a wildcard secret agent (John Travolta) as they strong-arm... More >>

When director Inoue Tsuki visited the International Film Festival Rotterdam last year, she brought her short film "The Woman Who Is Beating the Earth" with her. It was a wild short full of energy, and heavily relying on music and... More >>

[Our thanks to Serdar Kökçeoğlu for the following.]Modern Turkish cinema continues to present new genres of movies, in contrast with the more traditional facade it had in the past. And carrying on with that trend, two new movies have...

Jackie Chan stars as a lowly, unnamed Liang soldier who survives an ambush by Qin forces that decimates his 2000-strong army. The only other survivor appears to be a young Wei general (Wang Leehom) fighting for the Qin, who... More >>

During the Halloween weekend last Fall I was taking the subway home when a gaggle of young females came onto our car. Displaying their immense cleverness and creativity their costumes for whichever party was going on in whatever part... More >>

Airing last March on Channel 4 in the UK, The Red Riding trilogy (consisting of "1974", "1980" and "1983") finally makes its way to the states this Friday, February 5th. Opening theatrically in NYC, with a big city roll out...

[Our thanks to Michael Hawley for offering his preview of SF IndieFest 2010 to the Twitch readership.] The 12th edition of the San Francisco Independent Film Festival--better known as SF IndieFest--takes over the Roxie Theater for two weeks starting... More >>

  (or: "Sympathy for Everybody's Vengeance"...)  We've certainly had no shortage of news on Simon Rumley's new film "Red, White & Blue" here at Twitch. His previous film "The Living and the Dead" was rated highly at our site and... More >>

(Note: this is not a film that screened at Rotterdam this year, but given the festival helped release it seven years ago and publish what is currently the only DVD available with English subtitles, IFFR 2010 seemed a good...

Giorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth certainly doesn't lack for ambition. A father, pathologically opposed to the moral decadence of modern society, deceives his three children into living as voluntary prisoners in their isolated country home through an ongoing programme of lies...

Based on David Peace's recent quartet of crime novels, the Red Riding trilogy brings to life an ultra dark, relentlessly bleak depiction of a society riven by social decay; of characters battling with their conscience, and others for whom the battle never...

Fortuity provides an intriguing thematic segue. Brushing up on my Val Lewton research in anticipation of PFA's Complicated Shadows series, I came across a brief mention at The Val Lewton Screenplay Collection--a fantastic resource for Lewton fans--that, allegedly, Val... More >>

Liu Jiayin's Oxhide II seems the absolute embodiment of arthouse preciousness, like a final-year university project blown up to more than two hours. Like the first Oxhide, the young director's only actors are herself and her parents; the narrative,...

Nicolas Winding Refn seems to see Valhalla Rising as a tone poem of sorts, but the acclaimed Danish director's seventh feature film is more one long atonal scribble. A grim, brutally violent action drama about a Viking war party...

By Charles WebbPedro Almodovar's latest has the potential to lure viewers in with the promise of the unraveling of a romantic-tragic mystery. And yes, part of the movie is concerned - as many of Almodovar's films are - with...

Let's dispense with the elephant in the room as soon as possible - Elbowroom is a South Korean drama featuring a young female lead playing a character with cerebral palsy. There's no ignoring the bar in this regard has...

Why does an inflatable sex doll come to life and proceed on a journey of discovery looking to explore the human condition? It just does, apparently. Hirokazu Kore-Eda's Air Doll is quietly unapologetic about its status as a winsome...

It could be hard to sell people on Simon Rumley's Red, White & Blue. It is frequently a brilliant film, make no mistake (and yes, it more than justifies the hype we've given it), yet - without resorting to...

If the gripping title isn't reason enough to make you watch this film, then the appearance of Masatoshi Nagase should surely suffice to spark some interest. Still doubting ... then hopefully the following review will make you change your mind,...

[Our thanks to Ryland Aldrich for the following review.]This year's Sundance Spotlight Surprise slot was filled by the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop, directed by the enigmatic artist Banksy.  The film is a documentation of the rise and...

By Charles Webb It seems that I'm somewhat late the party when it comes to writer-director Yang Ik-Joon's drama, Breathless. Following a foul-mouth, hard-gambling debt collector's tentative relationship with an emotionally and physically battered high school girl, the movie uses...

Warning: If you've never seen a Mel Gibson movie before, this review may contain spoilers.Following THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, and revelations about his feelings towards the chosen people and the sugar-titted, many such as myself have spent the last...

[Our thanks to Ryland Aldrich for the following review.]One of the most popular films at this year's Sundance Festival - and winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury prize - has been David Michôd's Animal Kingdom. Set in...

[Our thanks to Ryland Aldrich for the following review.]If you happen to be wondering what that sound is that you are hearing right now, it is probably the buzz coming from the Park City streets for the film Catfish. ...

Much praise has already been sung on this site about "City of Life and Death" , Chuan Lu's film about the Nanjing massacre. I'm going to add a little to that, but the biggest news I have is that the... More >>