Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Past Lives 2023

  ★★★★★ Watched 22 Jan 2023 3

  A drama about love and fate, Celine Song’s directorial debut PAST LIVES was the best film I saw at Sundance, where it world premiered. Expertly acted by Greta Lee (RUSSIAN DOLL) and Teo Yoo (SEOUL SEARCHING), who play two deeply connected childhood friends who are separated after her family emigrates from South Korea and meet up years later, culminating in a fateful reunion in New York City, Song’s confident script and direction is uniquely her own, while hitting familiar ground…

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  August at Akiko's 2018

  ★★★★★ Watched 01 May 2023

  Available on all VOD platforms

Popular reviews

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  Slalom 2020

  ★★★½ Added

  Charlène Favier's stunning debut feature SLALOM is a taut, gripping emotional drama from beginning to end. Starring Jérémie Renier in one of the most complex and striking performances of his career, and rising star Noée Abita in the lead, the film is at once both a searing indictment of the pressures of elite competitive sport and an unflinching portrait of sexual predation.

  Favier captures with subtlety and nuance the turbulent emotional world of the talented young Lyz (Abita), a 15-year-old…

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  Girl, Interrupted 1999

  Added

  Kanani Sato // June 6, 2022

  Upon first look, GIRL, INTERRUPTED (1999) appears to be the sister film of the critically acclaimed ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975). The way Lisa (Angelina Jolie) enters the ward, kicking and screaming, marks her as GIRL, INTERRUPTED’s McMurphy and the force that will upturn the institution as it stands. Despite their marked similarities, GIRL, INTERRUPTED (1999) is unique in its emphasis on self-diagnosing mental illness and moving forward. READ MORE >>> hiff.org/review-girl-interrupted/