Author Carmen Paddock

The most effective horror comes from the unknown. In Visar Morina’s dramatic thriller, Xhafer is a Serbian pharmaceutical engineer who now lives in Germany with his wife and three children. One day, he finds...

Brazil, 1899. Slavery has been abolished for 11 years. The women of the Soares family find their old plantation lifestyle out of reach, and their former slaves are struggling to find a place in the new...

Today’s news often leaves little to be happy about. Spikes in carbon emissions from rainforests and permafrost have shaken previous climate models, leading experts to predict we have far less time than...

As the title suggests, The Twentieth Century opens at the close of the previous one. A young elite is groomed and ready to ascend the ranks of Canadian politics – and not even his most ridiculous perversions...

Anyone familiar with European folklore will have an idea of where Christian Petzold’s latest feature may end up. But as this modern fairy tale opens, Undine is not a water spirit – yet. She is a state...

Some films need no special tricks or thrills to captivate, and Kelly Reichardt’s latest is a near faultless example. Following a loner cook and a Chinese immigrant who form a loving alliance in their travels...

The least believable part of Philippe Garrel’s latest film is that anyone involved has ever been in a relationship. The Salt of Tears follows Luc, a young carpentry student moving from the countryside to...

There is a scene just before the halfway point in Time To Hunt, Yoon Sung-hyun’s latest heist horror, that signals a seismic shift in the film’s rulebook. While not necessarily a twist by virtue of the...

Biopics are tricky; there is a balance to strike between comprehensively covering the subject's entire life and picking a dramatically satisfying theme and tone. Hidden Away reaches for the former but brings...

Vadim Perelman’s Holocaust drama, inspired by true events, begins with its strongest sequence. As Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is transported alongside fellow Jews to an undisclosed location, he ends up...

Sleep and death are two sides of the same coin in Maria Ignatenko’s slow-burning psychological drama. Sleep of any kind eludes Victor (Vadik Korlyov), who when the film opens is on trial for the murder of...

The titular Wildland evoked by Jeanette Nordahl’s feature is both the expansive Danish scenery and the inner workings of family dysfunction. After her alcoholic mother dies in a car accident, Ida is sent to...

With today’s headlines, there could be a strong film made from the historical investigation, aided by an American ex-war journalist, into the widespread mercury poisoning wrought by the Chisso Corporation in...

Philippe Falardeau’s latest feature is a visual treat. Sara Mishara’s cinematography creates a golden-hued vision of 1990s New York, and everything from the costumes to the cheesecake evokes a grand...

Films about artists – specifically, filmmakers – court their own special brand of self-indulgence. But, when a film is clearly made by and for those passionate about the art, this genuine love can prove...