International Critics Line

Pregnant prisoners are the subject of 107 Mothers, Slovakia's striking but somewhat sluggish International Feature Oscar entry directed by Peter Kerekes who co-wrote with Ivan Ostrochovský, winning Best Screenplay in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section earlier this year. Inspired by the true stories of women…

A woman makes a dramatic life change in Tereza37, the official International Feature Film Oscar entry from Croatia. Screenwriter Lana Barić plays married Tereza (37), who has been going the traditional route to try for a baby for years without success. She considers other options when her gynecologist jokes she should…

The kitchen takes center stage in Boiling Point, a one-take wonder that thrives on the tension coursing through one night at a trendy London restaurant. The stress level may be cranked artificially high at moments, but director Philip Barantini's follow-up to his well-received debut — last year's East End gangster…

Young girls hide from drug cartels in Prayers For The Stolen, Mexico's powerful entry to the International Feature Oscar race. Directed by Tatiana Huezo and loosely based on Jennifer Clement’s novel, the film, which screens at AFI Fest on November 14 and releases theatrically and on Netflix in the U.S. and select…

The old adage "write what you know" has rarely paid off with such bleak, persuasive power as it does in Unclenching The Fists, which won the Grand Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar this year, is Russia’s submission to the International Feature race at the Oscars and is screening at AFI Fest. Mubi has U.S…

Timed to the occasion of China's National Day holiday, the state spared no expense in making a most lavish and expensive slab of self-congratulatory movie propaganda with The Battle At Lake Changjin. Clocking in at nearly three hours, and spectacularly presented on an enormous IMAX screen, this is a gargantuan account…

Juliette Binoche has a field day and then some in Who You Think I Am, an insidiously smart, multi-layered yarn that shrewdly plays with the possibilities that modern media offers for presenting alternate versions of oneself publicly and especially privately. Author Camille Laurens got her finger firmly on the pulse…

The cluelessly arrogant secret agent with a name as silly as his retrograde attitudes — Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, aka agent OSS 117 — is back in OSS 117: From Africa With Love. Everybody loves a secret agent, even a demonstrably buffoonish one, and versatile Jean Dujardin is a deadpan delight as the staunchly…

Korean box office hit Escape From Mogadishu has arrived in U.S. cinemas, and it's gripping stuff. Propelled by a naturally cinematic true story, the thriller blends action with humor and heart to crowd-pleasing effect. Well Go USA handles domestic while the Lotte release recently topped $20M in its home market. It's…

Donnie Yen stars in Raging Fire, the Hong Kong/Chinese actioner that's hitting domestic cinemas on Friday (via Well Go USA) as it nears $100M at the China box office. Directed by the late Benny Chan, it introduces us to Yen's character, Shan, as a principled cop who's protective of his pregnant wife (who rarely…

A refugee finds solace in literature in Lamya's Poem, a Syria-set, English-language feature which premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Written and directed by Alex Kronemer, it stars Millie Davis (Wonder) as the voice of Lamya, a spirited 12-year-old who lives with her mother in war-torn…

"Men are all the same," tuts the midwife delivering the titular Snotty Boy at the start of this animated biopic of cult cartoonist Manfred Deix, showing at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. But Snotty Boy is not the same as anyone else in his small, conservative Austrian town. He's a talented artist…