Venice 2020 Archives - The Playlist

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘Wife Of A Spy’ Is A Beautifully Crafted, Twisty Thriller [San Sebastian Review]

September 28, 2020 11:13 am

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a directorial polyglot, no doubt about it, but he's more fluent in some cinematic languages than others. Having more or less co-founded the J-horror wave, and with "Pulse...

‘Notturno’ Is A Meditative Look At Middle Eastern Conflict [Venice Review]

Christian Gallichio

September 18, 2020 10:29 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

Composed of a series of striking tableaux, Gianfranco Rosi’s contemplative documentary, “Notturno,” mines the intergenerational conflict on the borders between Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, and Lebanon. Cross-cuttin...

‘The Disciple’ Is A Profound Study Of A Failed Artist [Venice Review]

Christian Gallichio

September 14, 2020 12:16 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Unfurling an entire life of failed artistic ambitions in the span of a two-hour film, Chaitanya Tamhane’s remarkable sophomore feature “The Disciple” is decidedly leisurely in its approach. Executive produced ...

‘Hopper/Welles’: The Lost Conversation Between Two Fascinatingly Flawed Legends [Venice Review]

Jessica Kiang

September 14, 2020 10:17 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

Choose your fighter: Orson Welles, recently back in LA after a decade of European exile, and embarking on a project so meta he will emulate the film's director-protagonist and die at 70 never having finished i...

Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ Is As Vast As The American Landscape It Travels [Venice Review]

Jessica Kiang

September 11, 2020 4:00 pm

Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

In almost no way does Chloé Zhao's quiet, enormous, deep breath of a movie, "Nomadland," resemble "Blade Runner." Except there's this one moment: an outstanding speech in a film as attuned to vast wild silence...

‘In Between Dying’: Fleeing Death And Finding Love In Azerbaijan [Venice Review]

Joe Blessing

September 11, 2020 12:58 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

“In Between Dying” is a dreamlike story of personal transformation from rising Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov. With a fast-growing body of work that blends fiction and documentary, Baydarov is singl...

‘New Order’: Unflinching Mexican Dystopian Film Shocks With Blistering Purpose [Venice Review]

Carlos Aguilar

September 10, 2020 3:00 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Serious discussions on the perpetuated correlation between race and class in Mexico have dominated the country’s collective consciousness over the last few years. Cinema has actively participated in such recko...

‘Run Hide Fight’ Is Exactly Why No One Ever Asked For A School-Shooting ‘Die Hard’ [Venice Review]

Jessica Kiang

September 10, 2020 3:00 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

So somebody somewhere one day had a thought: "What if 'Die Hard' except a school shooting?" and not only didn't they immediately check themselves for other symptoms of lead poisoning but thought, "Yep, that's ...

‘Topside’: Celine Held & Logan George Discuss Their Gripping Debut Feature & Its Venice Debut [Interview]

Ally Johnson

September 10, 2020 1:33 pm

Festivals, Interviews, News

Filmmakers Celine Held and Logan George have had quite the journey when it comes to the release of their first feature film. With years of research and numerous short films under their belt, “Topside” was mean...

‘The Best Is Yet to Come’ Is A Messy, But Affecting Look At Post-Pandemic Journalism [Venice Review]

Christian Gallichio

September 10, 2020 12:52 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Mining the well-worn tropes of the crusading journalist, Jing Wang's “The Best is Yet to Come” is an investigatory look at Beijing in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic. Taking place in 2003, the film follows ...

‘The Predators’ Exclusive Clip: Labelling Food Is Brilliant Idea In Pietro Castellitto’s Venice-Bound Film

Charles Barfield

September 10, 2020 10:55 am

Festivals, News, Video

The term “predator” can mean a number of different things. Obviously, there’s the definition that relates to animals in nature, the hunter after the prey. And in the #MeToo era, there’s the more nuanced defini...

‘Topside’: A Mother & Daughter Struggle To Survive New York’s Underground Tunnels In A Wrenching Drama [Venice Review]

Rodrigo Perez

September 9, 2020 10:21 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

The indie drama “Topside” opens with a startling image: a five-year-old girl sleeping on the ground with a beam of light shining on her from above. She's underground living in the tunnels of New York beneath t...

‘Dear Comrades’ Is A Beautifully Crafted Look At A Bloody Soviet Tragedy [Venice Review]

Jack King

September 8, 2020 11:28 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

June 1962: Novocherkassk, the USSR. The halcyon days of Stalin’s premiership, where meat rations were plentiful and cigarettes easy to come by, are over. The Soviet people face conditions of significant hardsh...

‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ Trailer: Journalistic Integrity Is At The Center Of This Venice/TIFF Selection

Charles Barfield

September 8, 2020 11:14 am

Festivals, News, Trailers

The early-2000s was an interesting time in the world of journalism. With the internet becoming more and more ubiquitous by the day, that era saw the beginning of the shift from traditional newspaper/magazine j...

West Bank Drama ‘200 Meters’ Explores the Walls That Surround Us [Venice Review]

Warren Cantrell

September 8, 2020 11:00 am

News, Reviews

For a lot of Americans, words like “West Bank,” “Palestine,” and “Israel” exist more as political ideas rather than actual places, denoting a struggle that transcends a particular location. To understand this ...

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