[...] Then the narrative—and Farhadi's off-kilter pace—shifts. It posits itself as plot-centric but really is a character piece where (inter)personal histories define everything. And frankly? It's juicy. It overflows with gossip and unspools itself with what at times feels like a gleeful abandon, knocking over its dominos with its eyes set on the finish. It can feel predestined at times, but Farhadi so earnestly downplays most canards, setting them off with fractal-like momentum.

When they work, it's because the script…

What a hellish time early adolescence is. When I say hellish, I mean that in the most transcendent, stinging way possible: it's a dumpster fire; a cacophony of groans; an implosion of externalized insecurities. They say that burning alive is the most painful way of dying, so why does no one award 13-year-olds for surviving such a sensation for nine whole months? I'm sure that I'm still reeling from it, and seeing such a respectful yet truthful examination of the…

[... T]here's something very knowing about Assassination Nation, and while Salem may seem divorced from the rest of the world, the film is deceitfully literate in both concept and execution. This literacy extends itself to how the characters interact with the confines of the film itself, and the picture ends up being incredibly of its time.

This is a '70s Japanese girl gang film placed into modern America, meshing verbal gymnastics à la Heathers and Jennifer's Body with a post-Spring…