Festival reviews
-
Reviews‘Company’ review: Casey Affleck directs, co-writes and stars in atmospheric but convoluted slice of American Gothic
Nick Nolte, Scott McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn and Emily Alyn Lind also star in Affleck’s twisting Venice competititon premiere
-
Reviews‘Bunker’ review: Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz navigate a marriage under siege in Florian Zeller’s elegant drama
Stephen Graham also stars in Zeller’s London-set Venice competition title
-
Reviews‘Musk’ review: Alex Gibney presents a gripping if glossy study of controversial billionaire Elon Musk
Gibney’s exhaustive documentary plays Venice ahead of berths in Toronto and London
-
Reviews‘A Common Story’ review: Alba Rohrwacher is extraordinary in distinctive, daring Italian empty nest drama
Anna Foglietta’s accomplished debut premieres in Venice Horizons
-
Reviews‘A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra’ review: Formally bold, compassionate drama is inspired by a real-life Greek tragedy
The 2008 police killing of a teenager in Athens informs Jacqueline Lentzou’s audacious Venice Horizons title
-
Reviews‘The Burning Giants’ review: Shape-shifting Thai displacement drama blurs myth and reality
’Manta Ray’ director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng turns his attention to marginalised S’gaw community in ambitious third feature
-
Reviews‘No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman’ review: Tense, blunt-edged Kurdish war thriller follows a female sniper in Iraq
Halkawt Mustafa’s female-led action drama brings glossy genre mechanics to a story of Kurdish resistance
-
Reviews‘Conversation With The Sea’ review: Kamel El Basha anchors Muayad Alayan’s uneven Palestinian drama
A Jerusalem-set mystery turns one man’s private reckoning into a pointed portrait of Palestinian life in Israel
-
Reviews‘The Spiral’ review: Paolo Strippoli’s dark Italian family fable promises more than it delivers
Star Valeria Bruni Tedeschi impresses in this stylish but increasingly repetitive Faustian horror
-
Reviews‘Look Back’ review: Hirokazu Koreeda sketches a tender but overly sentimental portrait of young friendship
The Japanese auteur’s live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga debuts in Venice Competition
-
Reviews‘Boatbuilders’ review: Luke Lorentzen’s Maine-set boatyard documentary is a finely crafted delight
The ‘Midnight Family’ director slows the pace for this beautifully observed portrait of craftsmanship and community
-
Reviews‘Hombre Al Agua’ review: Gael Garcia Bernal’s class satire proves disjointed and underpowered
Garcia Bernal directs, co-writes and stars in this Venice Spotlight premiere
-
Reviews‘Woman Unknown’ review: May el-Toukhy’s Venice competition title is formal yet ferocious post-war Danish drama
Mathilde Arcel puts in a terrific lead performance in the director’s follow-up to Long Story Short and Queen Of Hearts
-
Reviews‘The Echo Chamber’ review: Andrea Pallaoro turns Bernardo Bertolucci’s final script into precise, somewhat odd study of love and dependency
Alicia Vikander, Luca Marinelli and Susan Sarandon star in London-set Venice competition title
-
Reviews‘Holy Wood Dust’ review: Victor Kossakovsky’s study of trees lacks the revelatory magic of his best works
The Russian documentarist’s follow-up to Trillion and Architecton premieres out of competition in Venice
-
Reviews‘Possible Love’ review: Lee Chang-dong explores class, desire and exploitation in powerful Venice competition return
The ‘Burning’ director reunites with star Sul Kyung-gu for an enigmatic drama about two married couples divided by wealth
-
Reviews‘The Difficult Bride’ review: A fairytale Bangladeshi wedding turns into a nightmare in sharp feminist body horror
Rubaiyat Hossain’s latest work becomes the first Bangladeshi film to play in Venice
-
Reviews‘Citizen Osama’ review: A Palestinian journalist balances war reportage with family life in harrowing Gaza doc
Ahmed Hassouna’s Venice out of competition title has been selected as Palestine’s official Oscar submission
-
Reviews‘Father Joe’ review: Kiefer Sutherland takes holy orders in Luc Besson’s violent action romp
Al Pacino adds marquee heft to Barthélémy Grossmann’s knowingly trashy action thriller
-
Reviews‘Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger’ review: Sentimental doc about UK band’s reunion plays best when it focuses on the music
Directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace chart Oasis’s 2025 tour in Venice out of competition title