4
While a middling, inoffensive family comedy may be its aim, Where’d You Go, Bernadette allows its divisive filmmaker to make some broad, uncomfortable statements on the nature of genius.
6.5
Durst’s film shows a respectable ability to communicate what happens when the fantasy of celebrity breaks down on both sides of the spectrum.
7.5
With a narrative that feels uncomfortably ripped from the headlines, The Journalist reinforces the need for a critical and independent media through the tense lens of a bureaucratic thriller.
5.5
The rise of Japanese chess enthusiast Shoji Segawa into the cutthroat professional world makes for some predictable yet crowd-pleasing fare.
8
Drifting through radical tonal shifts with ease, Melancholic is a quirky tale of murder and a quarter-life crisis that confidently hails a fresh directing talent.
2.5
An exercise in baiting and switching, Jesus promises a quirky faith parable but delivers a sterile and derivative coming-of-age tale.
4
Erica 38 may be based on a true story, but that doesn’t stop it from being flaccid and tedious.
9.5
Like an insane descent into the dreary streets of Tokyo’s gang-ruled underground, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Bullet Ballet is a landmark entry in Japan’s punk-film movement.
6
Weighed down by a poorly handled mystery plot, Red Snow is an airless exploration of repressed trauma and past guilt that is just too dour to follow.
8.5
And Your Bird Can Sing is a subtle meditation on bacchanal self-destruction that mines unspoken moments for unexpected impact.
9
As a chilling portrait of a city in turmoil and a boisterous tribute to its struggling residents, The Kamagasaki Cauldron War is the comedy for the proletariat told with invigorating realism.
8
Maggie is a puzzling oddity whose creative aimlessness endears itself to its head-scratching audience.
8.5
#NYAFF Review: Deftly tapping into a common Millennial anxiety, 5 MILLION DOLLAR LIFE is a sardonic, existential exploration of one's value in society.
7.5
A fresh take on the tired zombie formula, played with enjoyable farcicality by a standout cast, makes The Odd Family: Zombie for Sale an absurdist delight.
6
By exploring the small overlaps between, and coincidences among, the stories of complete strangers, Jam fails to become as good as the sum of its parts.
5
Full of gratuitous eye candy, White Snake is a derivative exercise that wrongly believes overloading itself with style and action can sustain yet another take on the ancient Chinese legend.
