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Manuela Lazic
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Fallen Leaves (2023) |
Humble but playful with his usual beautifully composed images, acknowledging that answers are hard to come by but offering some respite, the filmmaker offers an optimism grounded in reality—a poetry born out of difficulty. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 05, 2023
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The Zone of Interest (2023) |
Triet’s deserving of recognition... - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 05, 2023
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Last Summer (2023) |
Breillat here ventures even deeper into the dark territory of forbidden desires, not out of perversion but rather to push our understandings of ourselves and our impulses further. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 05, 2023
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May December (2023) |
As Elizabeth slowly steps into Gracie’s shoes without scruples and brings back to the surface old questions about the couple, every interaction between the two becomes more volatile, and several scenes are shockingly funny. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 05, 2023
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Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Anatomy of a Fall goes further than traditional procedurals by taking the notion of guilt beyond hard facts and toward the idea of toxic influence, exploring gender dynamics in the process. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 05, 2023
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) |
Martin Scorsese’s three-hour Western features a throwback performance from Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio at his best in a film that mirrors aspects of classics like Goodfellas. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 02, 2023
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Causeway (2022) |
What makes Causeway more than a hopeful story about rebuilding oneself thanks to friendship, however, is that it doesn't ignore the grasp that the past has on the present... - The Ringer
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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The Origin (2022) |
Quite uncommonly and paradoxically, the reveal gives more legitimacy to what came before it. - Cineuropa
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| Posted Oct 21, 2022
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Murina (2021) |
Croatian filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović expertly breaks down the forced servitude and the brutal familial mechanisms of a certain kind of Balkan machismo. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Sep 16, 2022
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Cow (2021) |
In her documentary Cow, Andrea Arnold avoids anthropomorphism, instead trying to present the world as her main character sees it. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Apr 01, 2022
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Licorice Pizza (2021) |
Paul Thomas Anderson’s script is the loosest, most romantic one he’s ever written, but what makes it Oscar worthy is everything happening just beneath the surface. - The Ringer
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| Posted Mar 23, 2022
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West Side Story (2021) |
Spielberg's West Side Story uses all the tools of filmmaking to better bring together the classic story and songs into a unified piece of cinema, like a strong fist in which each finger is as determined as the others to revolt. - The Ringer
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| Posted Dec 16, 2021
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King Richard (2021) |
Led by Will Smith, the biopic goes beyond the headlines surrounding Venus and Serena Williams and delves into exactly what makes their ascension so inspirational. - The Ringer
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| Posted Nov 20, 2021
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The Ancient Woods (2017) |
Avoids the usual trappings of anthropomorphism. - Hyperallergic
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| Posted Aug 16, 2021
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Minari (2020) |
Yeun is one of Hollywood's most charming actors. What makes his performance as a struggling patriarch Oscar-worthy, then, is the way he rejects that innate talent. - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 19, 2021
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Moffie (2019) |
Moffie achieves, paradoxically and effectively, a unique kind of universality. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted May 01, 2020
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The Holy Mountain (1973) |
What The Holy Mountain depicts, rather than a narrative, is a series of tests and learning experiences that the fool will go through in order to attain enlightenment. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted Mar 19, 2020
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Richard Jewell (2019) |
With Richard Jewell, Eastwood has perfected his cinematic approach to real stories to become one of the most humanistic, bold, and morally invigorating American filmmakers today. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted Mar 13, 2020
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EMMA. (2020) |
The overall tone is one of contrived frolicking. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted Mar 13, 2020
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La Dolce Vita (1960) |
To call the film's title ironic would be simplistic; Fellini gives his audience the room to decide for themselves whether life must be a battle or a surrender (or something in between) in order to be dolce. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted Mar 13, 2020
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The Invisible Man (2020) |
Staying slightly longer on a shot of a door left ajar doesn't reveal a hidden clown, Halloween-style, but instead makes evident how menacing the everyday can become for a person who has been traumatised. - WeLoveCinema
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| Posted Mar 13, 2020
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The Call of the Wild (2020) |
Rather than technology for technology's sake, the animation in the Harrison Ford-led movie about a dog rediscovering his true nature is profoundly deliberate... - The Ringer
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| Posted Feb 29, 2020
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What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire? (2018) |
A wake-up call to the cold, hard reality of racism. - Little White Lies
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| Posted Oct 16, 2019
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Ad Astra (2019) |
Ad Astra, set in the near future, gives the father-son dynamic literally astronomical dimensions. - The Ringer
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| Posted Sep 19, 2019
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Les misérables (2019) |
Like the similarly explosive Do the Right Thing, Les Misérables has surreal moments verging on comedy that heighten the sense of unpredictable brutality rather than distract from it. - Cinema Scope
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| Posted Sep 06, 2019
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Sibyl (2019) |
The conscious and the unconscious, the mental and the physical, the real and the fake, all collapse into each other through Triet's purposefully scrambled yet effortlessly evocative style. - Cinema Scope
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| Posted Sep 05, 2019
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Jacob's Ladder (1990) |
It is this constant slippage into uncertainty that makes Jacob's Ladder unique. Lyne's focus on the sensual experiences of his character helps blur that line between dream and reality... - The Ringer
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| Posted Aug 23, 2019
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The Farewell (2019) |
The Farewell [is] a vivid and endlessly relatable story of fractured identity in a globalized world. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jul 11, 2019
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Support the Girls (2018) |
A neorealist take on our capitalist times, reaffirming the essential need for camaraderie every day of the working week. - Little White Lies
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| Posted Jun 27, 2019
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The Lighthouse (2019) |
The triumph of The Lighthouse lies not only in its darkness, but in how it illuminates the fragility and terror of its characters in front of our eyes. - The Ringer
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| Posted Jun 10, 2019
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Ma (2019) |
[Ma] tediously arrives at a hysterical conclusion, short of breath. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 31, 2019
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Pain and Glory (2019) |
Almodóvar is optimistic that pain, whether mental or physical, can, once addressed, lead to genuine glory. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 24, 2019
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A Hidden Life (2019) |
Malick didn't make a film about living comfortably-only in accordance with what is right. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 24, 2019
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) |
Haenel brings her turbulent presence to Héloïse, but with a degree of era-appropriate restraint that makes her moments of vulnerability and rebellion all the more distressing. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 24, 2019
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Zombi Child (2019) |
Even as he acknowledges his borrowing of a cultural tradition, Bonello doesn't think himself above the visceral pleasures of the cinematic genre that came out of it; Zombi Child has its brains and eats them too. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 24, 2019
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Deerskin (2019) |
Its weirdly earnest tone keeps Deerskin grounded and coherent even as Georges turns murderous, taking the film to genre territory. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 24, 2019
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Rocketman (2019) |
Ideally, a movie like this would either fully sweep its audience up in a rush of emotion or else take them out of their comfort zones. Rocketman does neither. - The Ringer
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| Posted May 17, 2019
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Madeline's Madeline (2018) |
Overwhelming at first, Madeline's Madeline only gains from repeat viewings. - Little White Lies
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| Posted May 09, 2019
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Inherent Vice (2014) |
PTA gets loose with the film noir form only to better honor its essential dualities: people's simultaneous longing for and dreading of the truth, their desire to see things clearly or instead remain in the idealized world of their (intoxicated) mind... - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 18, 2019
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Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005) |
As though he were revisiting the 1970s' reimagining of the 1930s film noir, Black plays with the 21st-century spectator's expectations of perverse plot twists to highlight his characters' humanity. - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 18, 2019
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Chinatown (1974) |
Once you've seen it, Chinatown never leaves you. Like Jake, you can't forget it. - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 18, 2019
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Mulholland Dr. (2001) |
Lynch understands better than anyone how pop culture items such as old rock tunes and movie musicals are ingrained in everyone's (sub)consciousness, quietly defining people's aspirations and perception. - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 18, 2019
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The Big Lebowski (1998) |
Already a pessimistic take on the American Dream and the ideal of the self-made man, the model of the film-noir detective is ridiculed in The Big Lebowski. - The Ringer
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| Posted Apr 18, 2019
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Greta (2018) |
Greta made me jump in fright and laugh uproariously throughout its airtight 98-minute runtime-and had me once again marveling at the new kind of international stardom that Huppert has reached in the past few years. - The Ringer
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| Posted Feb 28, 2019
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Cold Pursuit (2019) |
Cold Pursuit focuses on cliché ideas of Native American spirituality and places these othering conceptions high above the reality of discrimination. - The Ringer
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| Posted Feb 08, 2019
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The House That Jack Built (2018) |
Von Trier choosing to take that risk may be his boldest declaration of humanity: to him, there is no doubt that Jack is deeply wrong. - The Ringer
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| Posted Dec 14, 2018
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Shoplifters (2018) |
For Kore-eda, money unavoidably gives reliance on each other the appearance of abuse, even in the eyes of the kindest shoplifter. Doubt takes over, and the herd disperses into lonely wolves, aggressive because they are scared of getting hurt again. - The Ringer
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| Posted Nov 28, 2018
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Beautiful Boy (2018) |
Felix Van Groeningen's film gives Carell plenty of space to use his dramatic chops and convince anyone who wasn't already persuaded that he can make us cry as much as he can make us laugh. - The Ringer
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| Posted Oct 15, 2018
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The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) |
The Kindergarten Teacher is purposefully not a comfortable watch, but it satisfies in many ways. Not only is its central character an imperfect woman, but she also expresses her palpable rage in a strange and fascinating form of intellectual violence. - Vague Visages
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| Posted Oct 10, 2018
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Candyman (1992) |
One aspect for which Candyman doesn't get enough credit is the brilliant way in which it uses the cliché of the average-looking and arrogant college professor... - The Ringer
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| Posted Oct 04, 2018
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