Filmmaker Magazine

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 Nothing will work because we don’t want another Blair Witch movie, really. We want to recapture that flicker of what made it feel special in the first place. Go to Full Review Blair Witch (2016) 38% 31%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 The new film plays less like a fairy tale and more like an extended metaphor for just how hard it is to make an independent film. Go to Full Review Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014) 88% 62%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 Swiss Army Man is far from a perfect film, but it’s packed with enough passion, imagination and originality to set it apart from the vast majority of feature debuts. Go to Full Review Swiss Army Man (2016) 73% 72%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 Restrained filmmaking doesn’t have to be boring. “Small” doesn’t have to mean uncommercial. And even though a movie is quiet, it can still have something absolutely vital and gripping to say. Go to Full Review Lovesong (2016) 83% 56%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 For two hours I disappeared into Reichardt’s languid rhythms, her stoic characters, her gorgeous, hazy 16mm photography, her careful poetry. Go to Full Review Certain Women (2016) 92% 51%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 Lowery is less interested in telling a traditional ghost story or scaring his audience. His aim here is to explore how the ghost story as a genre and storytelling tradition masks cultural anxieties about time and mortality. Go to Full Review A Ghost Story (2017) 91% 66%

Jane Schoenbrun Filmmaker Magazine Jul 10, 2026 Audiences are hungry to hear and understand a new, alternative narratives... Mudbound argues that we can hope to truly understand our past and our present. Go to Full Review Mudbound (2017) 97% 85%

Natalia Keogan Filmmaker Magazine Apr 21, 2026 Director Yael Bridge follows several UPS employees from around the country amid the daunting tasks of remaining steadfast as a collective, particularly when they must decide whether to accept the terms of their new contract or vote to go on strike. Go to Full Review Who Moves America (2026) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Nov 22, 2025 Echoes’s distinguishing features include its adept widescreen compositions—an aspect ratio unusual for this pocket of slow cinema—and its equally non-standard, lowkey but consistent sense of humor and extreme awareness of the present moment. Go to Full Review Echoes of the Orient (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Nov 22, 2025 Well-executed, dramatically bracing and well-composed. Go to Full Review Far in the Middle of the East (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Nov 21, 2025 The film’s real business is the non-stop purveying of images you’ve never seen before, building off a strong foundation of material shot in a desert over the course of 11 months. Go to Full Review Sermon to the Void (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Nov 21, 2025 The most stereotypically “Swiss” movie imaginable. Go to Full Review Le Lac (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Nov 21, 2025 So determinedly “gentle” and “low-key” that it made me wonder how many Japanese movies I’ve seen that could be called Still Walking beyond Kore-eda Hirokazu’s tonal prototype. Go to Full Review Saikai Paradise (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 30, 2025 If "Fire" is familiar in both its austerity and quasi-revolutionary solidarity, Mateus's command of her craft is clear, and her service in maintaining a particular lineage of severity admirable. Go to Full Review Fire of Wind (2024) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 17, 2025 Köhler’s a sneaky filmmaker, using conventional visual language and fully fleshed-out plotting to wrongfoot expectations in ways you couldn’t see coming, and it’s a pleasure to have him back for his first film in six years (!). Go to Full Review Gavagai (2025) 100% - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 17, 2025 Duse hit because of its core tenet: History is a real thing that actually exists. Go to Full Review Duse (2025) 70% - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 7, 2025 Strange River is a fine but familiar coming-of-age saga. Go to Full Review Strange River (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 7, 2025 The movie is basically never funny, nor is it especially pregnant with longing for a missing partner; it’s just inert. Go to Full Review Gloaming in Luomu (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 7, 2025 For about an hour, Black Rabbit is great fun, but unfortunately Mokri’s film is 138 minutes long. Go to Full Review Black Rabbit, White Rabbit (2025) - - - -

Vadim Rizov Filmmaker Magazine Oct 7, 2025 The movie is what we’d call a “promising first feature,” full of slow cinema compositional skill but a little low on the ideas necessary to get to even 85 minutes. Go to Full Review The River That Holds Our Hands (2025) - - - -