Elena Lazic
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Electric Malady (2022) |
While this respectful approach is understandable in the context of a documentary about William and not about this as-yet-unrecognised illness, it does make for a rather repetitive and monotonous film. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Mar 08, 2023
|
|
|
|
Infinity Pool (2023) |
Skarsgård excels at playing men in such profound denial that they barely know themselves and their own desires, desperately clinging to prefabricated models of masculinity instead (see The Northman), and this might be his best performance to date. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Fishbowl (2023) |
Its images seem to shiver with an unsettling sense of urgency. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Passages (2023) |
If Frankie... to mind the cinema of Éric Rohmer, then Passages recalls that of Maurice Pialat... It’s a style that fits like a glove with Sachs’ emotional intelligence, his eye for dramatic tension in everyday life and his sense of humour. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Squaring the Circle (2022) |
It still seems a shame to see Anton Corbijn turn to talking-head interviews and archive footage... This format almost inevitably gives exciting and, at the time, entirely unpredictable developments a dull, nostalgic sheen. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
No Bears (2022) |
Jafar Panahi’s ability to still clearly identify who the real culprits are is an inspiring testament to his clear-mindedness and his unshaken ability to imagine a better, more just world. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Dec 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Summerlight... and Then Comes the Night (2022) |
The sometimes dark, sometimes absurdist comedy (courtesy of actor Þorsteinn Bachmann, most of all) peppered throughout does help navigate tonal shifts. In fact, the cast as a whole is what most anchors the film to a semblance of reality, - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
|
|
Hide and Seek (2021) |
Fiore expertly combines observations on wildly different scales -- from the details of a Christmas tree on fire to the patterns that repeat across generations -- to reach a kind of ecstatic truth that is as beautiful as it is heart wrenching. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
|
|
Kristina (2022) |
At only 90 minutes, however... the film avoids lingering just for the sake of it, and packs a lot into its short runtime. This richness, as well as the feeling of introspection that imbues the film, also come down to Kristina herself. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Nov 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Blaze (2022) |
Lutz’s and Dussolier’s grounded performances held the potential of a moving film that would not need to take shortcuts to emotion. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Nov 03, 2022
|
|
|
|
Inland (2022) |
One of the latest examples of young British filmmakers daring to play with form and the traditional rules of storytelling. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Oct 21, 2022
|
|
|
|
My Policeman (2022) |
The intention is to contrast the old couple’s grey yet peaceful life with the intensity of their youth, in order to better highlight their present shared denial. But all it does is underline the superficial and trite understanding of closeted life. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Oct 13, 2022
|
|
|
|
Forever (2022) |
Forever is a well-made and emotionally attuned film, but almost to a fault. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 24, 2022
|
|
|
|
Have You Seen This Woman? (2022) |
An unpredictable and slippery journey through an identity in crisis, Have You Seen This Woman? bucks convention at every turn to explore the warped needs and desires, the regrets and the imagination of a woman in search of herself. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 15, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Lord of the Ants (2022) |
The most interesting aspect of “Lord of the Ants” comes in the form of the reliably brilliant Elio Germano, who breaks through to the viewer past the many layers of artificiality that surround his own character’s storyline. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Sep 13, 2022
|
|
|
|
Love Life (2022) |
A busy web of interpersonal dynamics, “Love Life” often feels more concerned about its characters’ storylines and the way they all fit into each other than about what the audience might be getting out of watching it all play out. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Sep 09, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Son (2022) |
Zeller plays with our expectations by revealing his characters to be more self-aware than we had initially assumed. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Innocence (2022) |
What is immediately remarkable about the documentary is the way it manages to be both brutally down to earth and incredibly poetic. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Skin Deep (2022) |
Skin Deep does hit enough of the right notes for us to forgive its few imperfections, and what could have been a glib sci-fi premise turns into an unexpected and moving portrait of love as rooted in acceptance. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Athena (2022) |
Alongside the large-scale action, Gavras also spends plenty of time on the faces of his actors. Free from the burden of realism, they are all conduits for pure emotion. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
The March on Rome (2022) |
Feelings of apprehension and scepticism never fully subside as Cousins builds his argument more by paying attention to uncanny echoes and resonances through history, than to sequences of facts or the logical building blocks of complex arguments. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Sep 02, 2022
|
|
|
|
Next Sohee (2022) |
…Both its overall emotional landscape and its study of exploitation are stuck in a rather monotonous sense of indignation and tragedy that ultimately feels frustratingly unproductive. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jun 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
Nostalgia (2022) |
The film ends on a slightly too simplistic, but it cannot take away from its overall highly sensitive and formally rigorous exploration of nostalgia and of the other, different relationships people can afford to have with their past. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Innocent (2022) |
Garrel here delivers a witty and elegantly constructed film that joyfully draws parallels between acting and lying, being and pretending, while remaining breezy, fun, eminently accessible and even welcoming. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
Forever Young (2022) |
“Forever Young” excels at evoking the sexually liberated atmosphere that must surely exist in any acting school, but which appears to have been particularly electric at the Lee Starsberg-inspired Amandiers. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Five Devils (2022) |
From its first beginning, “The Five Devils” feels like the inevitable encounter of indestructible drives, which send sparks flying both when they are satisfied and when they are denied. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
Smoking Causes Coughing (2022) |
Although “Smoking Causes Coughing” isn’t as substantial or funny as some of his other films, it remains a breath of fresh air and contains enough moments of invention and flawless comedy to amuse and charm. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
Paris Memories (2022) |
French writer/director Alice Winocour was interested in the connection between the body and the mind before it was cool. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2022
|
|
|
|
Brother and Sister (2022) |
“Brother and Sister” gives the impression of a sketch that comes more and more into focus as each additional scene fills in more detail in a broad canvas. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Aftersun (2022) |
The intention of those big, intense moments is to do justice to the magnitude of some very personal and powerful emotions. In that regard, “Aftersun” is a tonic — particularly at a festival where art films are generally cold and polite - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Rodeo (2022) |
"Rodeo,” the first fiction feature from French director Lola Quivoron, opens with one such scene and, as it goes on, continues to find itself torn between more conventional storytelling and something altogether stranger. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 19, 2022
|
|
|
|
Final Cut (2022) |
The film's lazy, anti-intellectual and reactionary perspective is felt in the severe lack of laughs, extending way beyond the purposefully bad single-take opening, but also in its idiotic jokes about racism and women breastfeeding (the French touch). - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted May 19, 2022
|
|
|
|
Incredible But True (2022) |
Though the film does not feature facemasks or elbow bumps, its thematic concerns feel directly inspired by the pandemic, more specifically by the changing relationship with time that lockdowns in particular have inspired in many of us. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Apr 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
Dark Glasses (2022) |
Rather than copy the style of the giallo films from the 1970s and 1980s that made him famous, his "Dark Glasses" finds ingenious ways to retain the core of the giallo while adapting to our current times. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Apr 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
A Woman at Night (2021) |
Kapelinski’s film is a suitably grimy and meditative reflection on the profound emptiness behind some lonely people’s fascination with serial killers and violence, but it’s one that rather gets lost in the darkness. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Apr 01, 2022
|
|
|
|
Wake Up Punk (2022) |
Wake Up Punk goes on to paint an often tiring and uncomfortable, but ultimately appealing, portrait not so much of the punk era, but of its offspring and his efforts to salvage the movement’s legacy. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Mar 24, 2022
|
|
|
|
Deep Water (2022) |
A joy from start to finish. - Little White Lies
Read More
| Posted Mar 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
A House Made of Splinters (2022) |
A House Made of Splinters does not provide any groundbreaking ideas on the cycles of addiction, violence and neglect, but it does show what a difference even a flickering ray of hope can make in the lives of children. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Feb 03, 2022
|
|
|
|
Sharp Stick (2022) |
"Sharp Stick" succeeds in sustaining the viewer's interest and compassion during some of the most disconcerting and potentially disturbing scenes. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jan 29, 2022
|
|
|
|
Babysitter (2022) |
The film gleefully circumvents all obvious didactic arguments about misogyny and men's role in the oppression of women by emphasising the lived-in experience of its characters. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
Klondike (2022) |
Culminating in a doubly shocking final scene, Klondike is a matter-of-fact and angry film about a war seen from the inside. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 26, 2022
|
|
|
|
Watcher (2022) |
With scenes suggesting too many possible explanations on the one hand, and others leaving little room for doubt, the moment-to-moment stakes feel blurred. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jan 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Princess (2022) |
The film is therefore also worthwhile for those who care little about Diana herself, as it shows the strange and fascinating interplay between the Royal Family and the general public. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Jan 21, 2022
|
|
|
|
Fresh (2022) |
"FRESH" unthinkingly falls into all kinds of regressive and reactionary traps without leaving much space for discussion or disagreement. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jan 21, 2022
|
|
|
|
Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) |
While this is ultimately a film about taking the time to appreciate what you have and enjoying every step of your way, the overall impression remains one of haste and only occasionally contagious overexcitement. - Little White Lies
Read More
| Posted Nov 11, 2021
|
|
|
|
The Power of the Dog (2021) |
The Power of the Dog features stellar work from its entire cast, and tells a story more interesting than most star-driven films out there, but it also feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. - Cineuropa
Read More
| Posted Oct 23, 2021
|
|
|
|
Zero Fucks Given (2021) |
Lecoustre and Marre have good sense...in delicate, truthful touches, they suggest for her the possibility of a future... - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2021
|
|
|
|
In Front of Your Face (2021) |
"In Front of Your Face" is one of the South Korean director's most open films of late, poignant in its use of a simple structure to touch on the eminently difficult question of how to live happily between past, present, and future. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jul 20, 2021
|
|
|
|
Hit the Road (2021) |
Panahi manages to keep an impressive amount of plates spinning all at once in "Hit the Road," a breath of fresh air and a truly original work that marks him as a talent to watch. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jul 20, 2021
|
|
|
|
Deception (2021) |
Characters are constantly trading insipid remarks and thrilling each other with their perceived intellect, but their intimacy feels like a closed circuit. The spark never reaches the audience. - The Playlist
Read More
| Posted Jul 20, 2021
|