REVIEWS
Post-film thoughts.
Memories of a Forest: Family Trees
Literalized through the titular forest, Memories of a Forest is a story of roots and generations—the stories we know of the people who came before us, cycles of trauma and societal expectation, the precarious choice between tradition and forging your own path. Inspired by real experiences, and filmed with an almost documentary-like sensibility, using real forests and some non-actors, Katharina Rabl takes a relatively simple story and injects it with surprising complexity.
Vintage Violence: Doing it for the Views
Seemingly fascinated with the intersection of performance and reality, Vintage Violence is one of the few entries in recent years that feels truly entrenched in online culture. Kotlyarenko approaches the subject not with an intention of warning, but an understanding that the online world is part of our reality just as anything else. Every detail, down to the individual users in Carter’s livestream chat, feel deeply human and all too real.
Furies: Taking it Back
Unlike other heist films, where the thief’s motive is one of vengeance, greed, or ego, the motives of the thieves in Furies are rooted in justice and reclamation. It is not the desperation of having nothing that drives these characters to rob the bank, but the knowledge that their own property is being kept from them.
Resident Evil: Achievement Unlocked
In Resident Evil, Cregger and his co-writer Shay Hatten ask how far you would go to avoid an inevitable change. Would you run and hide? Stand, fight, and survive? Perhaps you won’t know until you’re backed into a corner and forced to make the decision, wasting ammo, energy, and precious time.
Jollyface: White Guilt and Black Crimes
The reveal that the police deliberately dismissed the case is where Jollyface finds its sharpest edge—particularly the moment Blair watches the footage herself and realizes the cover-up wasn't negligence, it was a choice. The system didn't fail Nick. It worked exactly as intended.
River: Terror Downstream
The story of the film itself is nothing to write home about, but really, who is watching a slasher for a hero’s journey? We’re all here for the thrills, and River delivers.
La Gradiva: Always Forever
Versions of these teenagers existed centuries before they were ever born, they exist now as they are, and they will continue to be reincarnated as the centuries go by, worrying about the same things, stressed about school, trying to fit in with their peers, wondering who they are or where they come from.
Love is the Monster: Abuela in Action
The tug-of-war between Abuela and her daughter is one of the biggest ways Love is the Monster drives the narrative forward. García and Regidor portray this friction intensely and authentically. Some days, they are civil. Others, they quarrel over how to best take care of the grandchild. The heat to their performance is felt beyond the screen.
Stuffed: Still Life
Melling and Comer prove themselves as all-rounders in both their acting and singing abilities, the film almost entirely a two-person show, while Rhys establishes his filmmaking talent. The journey he takes the viewer on is one of accepting both life and death. Stuffed is about love as preservation. It is looking at preserving not only the body, but the human spirit as well.
Fjord: The Forgiving Cold
The film follows Lisbet and Mihai’s struggle to prove their innocence and maintain their traditional, conservative values when faced with a system that they feel is out to get them. It asks the audience to sympathize with a family we may disagree with, and forces us to confront our own biases and beliefs—but not always in the film’s favour.
Where the River Begins: The Jungle Decides
Juan Andrés Arango’s third feature film captures an incredibly personal and honest story led by amazing non-professional actors, making the raw emotion that much more impressive. Each scene feels naturalistic and quietly beautiful, letting the viewer immerse themselves in the lives of the characters and, as a result, root for Yajaira and María from the get-go.
Coyote vs. Acme: Sisyphus is Happy
It is through this seemingly never-ending legal proceeding that Wile E. Coyote, Kevin, and Paige realize that maybe winning the case, catching the Road Runner, keeping the boulder at the top of the hill, isn't their real goal. Perhaps the goal itself is the chase, the hill, and the journey.
The Odyssey: A Homeric Reckoning
Where Homer celebrates Odysseus as a hero returned, Nolan admonishes him as a harbinger of death. As heartbreaking as it is harrowing, the writer-director pulls on the thematic foundations of Tenet (2020) and Oppenheimer (2023) and once again asks the audience to reckon with one man’s destruction of the world.
Lucy Lost: The Journey to Belonging
Lucy and Milly care for each other with an affection and understanding of the other’s struggles that can only make you invested in their bond from the very first scene they share.
We Are Aliens: Friendship and the Scars It Leaves
Who hasn’t stared at the ceiling for hours, late at night, replaying an embarrassing memory from middle school over and over again? We Are Aliens (2026) takes this feeling and pushes it to its limit, and, as someone who tends to get stuck in the past, I immediately felt like the film was made for me.
Tana: Music as Heritage
The film allows us to admire the Mongolian landscapes, rendered in all their majestic vastness. The steppes, mountains, and fields surrounding Tana become powerful presences which are more than beautiful backgrounds—places that resonate with the stories of her ancestors.
The Invite: Wilde’s Triumphant Return
Helped along by excellent performances from each of the four actors, the film weaves an elaborate game of push and pull through both poignant moments and hilarious banter that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The Violinist: On War and The Sound of Music
Marking the first time that a Singaporean production not only won the award but took part in the Festival, The Violinist won the hearts of the Annecy jury through its blending of intense orchestration and a tense love story across the backdrop of the Japanese occupation of Singapore.
Tangles: A Poetic Tale of Hope and Grief
Capturing the heart-wrenching weight of every interaction between Sarah and her mother, the film lets the emotion take over through subtle changes in everyday situations, without forcing it upon its audience.
Iron Boy: A Charming Portrait of Childhood
Every step of the process reflects the director’s loyalty to his hometown. Voice recordings were done with non-professional actors—including Clichy’s son—in a farm in Beauce, location scouting was conducted in the same place, and one of the only songs used in the film was chosen in honor of his sisters. As a result, Iron Boy feels like an immersion into Clichy's childhood, comforting in the nostalgia it brings but also disarming in its complexity.