The absolute antithesis of the standard cheer-on-the-wronged revenge thriller, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a stripped-down take that unfolds much the way it might in real life. Accordingly, the film’s everyman protagonist, Dwight (Macon Blair), is hardly glorified: far from the clear-cut hero, he sports a long, wild beard, and if he looks homeless, that’s because he currently is, living out of his rusty old beater. Dwight is a tormented loner, in a constant state of agony, presumably an effect of his parents’ murder 20 years ago....

Disclaimer: no fatwa was issued during the making of Deepa Mehta’s epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children—although parts of the production did in fact take place, for security reasons, under the cover of a decoy title. (It’s not always easy being Salman Rushdie.) Based on the 1981 book that Indira Gandhi herself tried to censor (she successfully managed to have one sentence excised) the wildly ambitious story involves two newborns from opposite castes who are switched at birth at the very moment (the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947) that India achieved independence....

Let’s clear something up right off the bat and say that the last thing anyone needs is another movie featuring a clothing-deprived girl tied to a bed, for purposes of torture or otherwise. That The Disappearance of Alice Creed starts out by setting up this exhausted scenario, however skillfully, is indeed sigh-worthy. But in no time it becomes apparent that the rules are different in writer-director J Blakeson’s twisty feature debut—and that’s what fans of the thriller genre want....

Within the unpredictable world of The Double Hour, speed dating results in the inverse: dating on speed. A regular attendee of these mystifying yet strangely cinematic hook-up events, widower Guido (Filippo Timi) finally makes a promising love connection with Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport), a Slovenian chambermaid new to Turin. “I wasn’t ready for you,” he admits to her shortly after they meet. It’s truer than he knows—he has no idea what’s in store....

In the opening shot of Silent Light, we begin as if lost in the cosmos and end with our feet on the quotidian ground. Gradually transfigured by the rising sun, the world fills with life, materializing first as crude form, then delicate silhouette, then vast landscape rich with color and texture. Throughout the film, the emphasis is on firmly acknowledging the miraculous within the most ordinary of events, directing our attention not toward the virtuosity of the filmmaker but the splendor to which he bears witness....

Sami Blood During the early days of this year’s festival, a pair of female protagonists who are imprisoned, whether literally or metaphorically, made their mark in two fierce, expertly crafted films. Christina, the center of writer-director Amanda Kernell’s feature debut Sami Blood (playing within the Spotlight section, which presents acclaimed titles that have previously premiered at other festivals) is first introduced as an elderly woman returning home to Lapland after a near-lifetime to attend her estranged sister’s funeral....

Movies mentioned in this episode include Věra Chytilová’s Daisies, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dušan Makavejev’s A Man Is Not a Bird—and also the TV show Gossip Girl (and the band Liliput). Also, don’t miss Violet Lucca’s photo-essay from 2012 on Daisies. Also, check out the Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund — a wonderful initiative put together by Light Industry, Screen Slate, and other community partners to support hourly film workers in New York who are losing income because of the COVID-19 crisis....

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His latest documentary, A Compassionate Spy, might seem on the surface to be a departure. The film tells the story of Ted Hall, a physics prodigy who, at age 18, was invited to join the Manhattan Project. Perceptive beyond his years, Hall found himself haunted by the implications of his work and, in 1944, made the decision to share nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union. As compelling as this tale of espionage is, James’s film becomes, in the director’s words, “a love story,” with Ted’s widow Joan taking center stage as she recounts their life together, sharing the burden of her husband’s secret....

On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish sat down with Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, whose new documentary Occupied City was one of the early standouts at the festival. It’s a more than four-hour opus that combines a voiceover drawn from a book written by Bianca Stigter, McQueen’s collaborator and spouse, about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, with footage of the city shot by McQueen in the last three years....

Films discussed: Soft Fiction, Janie’s Janie, The Woman’s Film, Privilege, Betty Tells Her Story, Yudie, Fannie’s Film, Mimi, Veronica, Suzanne, Suzanne, Baby Doll, Clothesline

Strictly Film SchoolNo one embodies cinephilia in the Internet age better than the pseudonymous Acquarello (aka Pascual Espiritu), a self-described “NASA flight systems design engineer” who single-handedly creates all the content for Strictly Film School. Unapologetically auteurist in design, Strictly Film School’s biggest draw is its jaw-droppingly extensive Director’s Database that boasts over 500 names, from canonical faves like Chantal Akerman and Pedro Almodóvar to the less known (but no less worthy) Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and Lisandro Alonso—and that’s just scratching the surface of the As....

Film Comment spoke with Castaing-Taylor and Paravel about the film’s aesthetics and ethics beachside at the Venice film festival, where it had its world premiere. Caniba screens at Projections at the New York Film Festival on October 8 and 9. How did you know this was something you wanted to do a film about? Véréna Paravel: When we try to recall exactly how things happened, it’s always like trying to retrieve foggy memories....