Stories in Motion

We wrap up our Venice Film Festival coverage with Edoardo De Angelis's exhausting Christmas Eve family drama "The Fire Within You," centered on one of the most relentlessly monstrous mothers we've seen on screen this year. We talk through Vanessa Scalera's thankless, one-note role, the film's numbingly predictable structure, and why this felt like a rough note to end our...

Ellen Burstyn plays a recently widowed woman chasing a runaway pigeon across the country in Kornél Mundruczó's gentle, safe "Place to Be." We talk through Burstyn's effortless screen presence, Taika Waititi's surprisingly grounded turn opposite her, and why the film pulls its punches right when it should be taking real risks.

Ilya Khrzhanovsky's infamous, decades-in-the-making "DAU" finally arrives in Venice, a sprawling biopic of physicist Lev Landau built from a real-life recreation of Soviet-era life. We talk through the production's wild, controversial history, the film's staggering scope and craftsmanship, and whether this genuinely singular cinematic experiment lives up to its own legend.

Alba Rohrwacher plays a new HR manager slowly losing herself to corporate life in Stéphane Brizé's "A Good Little Soldier." We talk through Vincent Lindon's deliciously smug CEO, the film's familiar but occasionally sharp anti-corporate satire, and whether Carla's quiet moral awakening actually amounts to anything by the end.

Casey Affleck's genre-bending "Company" hides its vampire premise behind three interconnected period stories spanning decades. We talk through the film's striking visuals, its overwrought philosophical dialogue, and whether Atticus Affleck's demanding feature debut can carry the weight the film puts on him.

Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem play a couple whose marriage starts cracking under the weight of a neighbor dispute and a tempting offer from a tech billionaire in Florian Zeller's "Bunker." We talk through the film's electric central performances, its heavy-handed symbolism, and why its late pivot into thriller territory doesn't quite land.

Alex Gibney's nearly four-hour documentary "Musk" pieces together the full arc of Elon Musk, from awkward Zip2 founder to self-mythologizing tech titan reshaping the federal government. We talk through the film's most damning revelations, from Tesla's self-driving fraud to his belief in simulation theory, and why Gibney's real achievement is finally connecting all the dot...

Paolo Strippoli's "The Spiral" gives us Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as an impeccably dressed devil striking a horrifying bargain with a desperate mother, played by Jasmine Trinca. We talk through the film's stylish, campy horror energy, why it can't quite match the depth of Strippoli's previous film "The Holy Boy," and whether its flashy execution is enough to make u...

Hirokazu Koreeda adapts Tatsuki Fujimoto's beloved manga "Look Back" into a tender live-action story about two young artists whose friendship and creative partnership shape, and eventually shatter, their lives. We talk through the film's gorgeous visual language, its uncanny young cast, and where its expanded runtime occasionally stretches the delicate source material too thin.

Gael García Bernal writes, directs, and stars in "Hombre Al Agua," a meta-fictional drama about a passive lifeguard-turned-heir who becomes raw material for everyone else's story but his own. We talk through the film's clever structural ambitions, its pointed commentary on Latino identity in entertainment, and why its deliberately blank protagonist ends up holding the film back.

Alicia Vikander and Luca Marinelli star in Andrea Pallaoro's "The Echo Chamber," a single-location love story that leans hard on its stunning apartment setting but rarely gives its characters room to breathe outside their own relationship. We talk through the film's gorgeous cinematography, Susan Sarandon's scene-stealing turn, and why the more interesting story might have be...

Lee Chang-dong returns with "Possible Love," a rich, quietly devastating drama tracking two marriages on opposite sides of Korea's class divide. We talk through Jeon Do-yeon's layered performance, the film's loose ties to Kieślowski's "Dekalog 10," and why this might be the most emotionally precise film of the festival so far.

Kiefer Sutherland plays a vigilante priest gunning down '90s drug dealers in the bizarre, overstuffed "Father Joe." We talk through the film's dead-serious tone despite its ridiculous premise, its wildly random midpoint detour, and how it somehow still lands an oddly moving ending.

The Oasis reunion tour gets the documentary treatment in "Don't Look Back in Anger," but instead of raw sibling tension, we get something oddly polished and sentimental. We talk through the film's guarded interviews, its stronger-than-expected fan footage, and why it pulls its punches on a story that clearly had more edge to give.

Nanni Moretti's "It Will Happen Tonight" follows Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca as two would-be lovers who keep missing each other across the years. We talk through the film's dated romcom instincts, its jarring time jumps, one genuinely uncomfortable scene, and why this one may play better at home in Italy than anywhere else.

Robert Pattinson transforms into "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's grimy, claustrophobic "Primetime," alongside a stacked ensemble including Merritt Wever, Phoebe Bridgers, and Skyler Gisondo. We talk through Pattinson's uncanny performance, the film's discomforting visual style, and where its lack of broader context becomes its one real w...

Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw's "Burgundy" turns its lens on the vineyard owners, workers, sommeliers, and critics who've devoted their lives to French wine. We talk through the film's gorgeous, observational style, its playful detours, and the quiet class tensions simmering underneath all the beauty.

Denis Ménochet plays a newly elected French president forced into a nuclear standoff in "Jupiter," a tense, tightly controlled political thriller that trades spectacle for procedure. We talk through Ménochet's quietly devastating performance, how it stacks up against "A House of Dynamite," and why the film's breakneck pacing helps and hurts it in equal measure.

Paul Schrader returns with "The Basics of Philosophy," a provocative, uneven study of a predatory academic played by Jack Huston. We dig into why the film's premise is genuinely bold, where its handling of queer life falls apart, and whether Schrader's latest confessional streak earns the discomfort it's chasing.

After the festival's biggest misfire yet, Rami Kodeih's "Furies" comes in swinging, a Lebanon-set heist thriller about two sisters trying to break into their own frozen bank account amid the country's economic collapse. We talk through the film's kinetic energy, its "Thelma and Louise" edge, and the moral murkiness underneath all the adrenaline.

Shinya Tsukamoto's "Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?" tries to tell a Black soldier's Vietnam War story and ends up lost at nearly every level, stilted dialogue, disconnected performances, and a shockingly shallow grasp of race. We break down where the ambition gets buried under noise, why Rodney Hicks never gets a fair shot, and how this stacks up as our first real misfire nine...

Cédric Kahn's "15/18 (A Place to Heal)" drops us straight into a French teen psychiatric ward, following patients and staff through breakdowns, small victories, and one new arrival who upends everything. We talk through the film's raw, immersive energy, standout performances from Malou Khebizi and Zoé Monpart, and why so many of its most compelling threads get left hanging by the...

We kick off day three with "Queer Edward II," Theo Rollason's intimate documentary built from rare behind-the-scenes footage of Derek Jarman shooting his 1991 film "Edward II." We talk through the film's playful set-life chaos, how it weaves in real 1990s queer activism, and why it works better as a focused snapshot than a full biography.

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play two CIA veterans facing mortality and old secrets on Easter Island in Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine." We talk through Malkovich's career-best performance, the film's surprising spiritual undercurrent, its western movie DNA, and why this might be McDonagh's most affecting film to date.

On the fifth film of the festival and our third screening on Day 2, we get into Robert Greene’s  Too Much Sugar , a messy, funny, emotional documentary about fatherhood, friendship, grief, and accountability in working-class Missouri.