Bradley Warren, Author at The Playlist

‘The Merciless’ Is A Polished, Satisfying South Korean Gangster Flick [Cannes Review]

May 26, 2017 12:40 pm

The Hollywood studios may have stayed away from the Cannes Film Festival this year, but the South Korean majors certainly showed up in full force. Byun Sung-hyun’s “The Merciless,” is the second of two Korean e...

Bruno Dumont’s ‘Jeannette: The Childhood Of Joan Of Arc’ Is An Unbearable, Shallow Provocation [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 24, 2017 11:33 am

News, Reviews

Countless masters of cinema have tried their hand at the historic Joan of Arc story, including Carl Theodor Dreyer, Victor Fleming, Robert Bresson and Jacques Rivette. Any of these filmmakers would make for a t...

’24 Frames’ Is The Final, Major Work From The Great Abbas Kiarostami [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 23, 2017 11:45 am

News, Reviews

On July 4th, 2016, cinema lost one of its living legends in Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. For its 70th edition, the Cannes Film Festival rolled out the red carpet for the director’s posthumous final work,...

‘The Villainess’ Brings Terrific Action, But Muddled Storytelling [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 22, 2017 10:28 am

News, Reviews

Fourteen years after Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” took the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, South Korean cinema still represents the vanguard of action cinema. It is not surprising, then, that with each edi...

‘Alive In France’ Is A Curio For Abel Ferrara Fans, But Not Much Else [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 21, 2017 9:00 am

News, Reviews

To paraphrase John Carpenter, “In France, I’m an auteur; in the USA, I’m a bum.” The same can surely be said of Abel Ferrara, a veteran filmmaker who at this point in his career is more likely to bank on Gallic...

Hong Sang-soo Pays Homage To Cannes With The Rewarding ‘Claire’s Camera’ [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 21, 2017 8:39 am

News, Reviews

For ardent Hong Sang-soo fans, 2017 couldn’t be a more rewarding year. Not just because the South Korean filmmaker has three new films ready — the first, “On The Beach At Night Alone,” launched in Berlin — or e...

Agnès Varda’s Whimsical ‘Faces Places’ Is Endlessly Charming [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 19, 2017 2:25 pm

News, Reviews

Without Agnès Varda and the other filmmakers of the French New Wave — particularly the Left Bank auteurs — the essay film wouldn’t exist in its current shape and form. Perhaps best known for her classics of tha...

‘Let the Sunshine In’ Starring Juliette Binoche Is An Unprecedented Misfire From Claire Denis [Cannes Review]

Bradley Warren

May 18, 2017 8:48 am

News, Reviews

Give any cinephile worth their salt the keys to one of the major European festivals and you can bet they’ll find a high-profile slot for the latest film by Claire Denis. However, the film festival gatekeepers d...

‘Nobody’s Watching’ Deserves Its Best Acting Award At Tribeca [Review]

Bradley Warren

April 29, 2017 11:00 am

News, Reviews

The Tribeca Film Festival’s selection of “Nobody’s Watching” for its International Dramatic Competition is certainly a canny move, as the film couldn’t find a better home than this New York fest. Despite its tr...

Weed & Grief Collide Humorously In Stoner Comedy ‘One Week And A Day’ [Review]

Bradley Warren

April 28, 2017 5:45 pm

News, Reviews

Among the national cinemas represented at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, there was a notably large contingent of Israeli films. In addition to Un Certain Regard selections “Beyond the Mountain and Hills” and...

‘Arábia’ Proves That Socially Conscious Cinema Can Also Be An Escape [ND/NF Review]

Bradley Warren

March 21, 2017 4:55 pm

News, Reviews

Crafting a truly impactful, socially conscious film is a tricky act to pull off, one which requires a nuanced balance between palatability and sincerity, outrage and approachability. It is a small miracle that ...

Bong Joon-ho Talks The International Setting & Influences Of ‘Okja’

Bradley Warren

March 16, 2017 9:48 am

News

With the press conference set for April 13th, speculation over the Official Selection of this year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival is ramping up. One hotly-anticipated film sure to be jockeying for a slot...

Superficial ‘California Dreams’ Struggles To Find A Purpose [Berlin Review]

Bradley Warren

February 15, 2017 4:15 pm

News, Reviews

Mike Ott’s latest feature “California Dreams” — receiving its World Premiere as part of the fledgling Critics' Week program that runs concurrently with the main Berlin Film Festival — is one of those barely-the...

‘Family Life’ Is A Strange, Caustic & Funny Chilean Cinema Discovery [Sundance Review]

Bradley Warren

January 23, 2017 2:38 pm

News, Reviews

There is a recognizable tradition of arthouse home invasion movies, one that includes Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Theorem” or more recently, 2013 Cannes Competition entry “Borgman.” Chilean helmers Alicia Scherson a...

Potential Goes Unfulfilled In The Ambitious ‘Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!’ [Sundance Review]

Bradley Warren

January 23, 2017 9:39 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

If recent critical darlings “Neon Bull” and “Aquarius” are something to go by, Brazilian cinema is poised to break out in a major way. Film festival programmers the world over are surely scouring markets for th...

Author Bradley Warren