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Journey Into Cinema

@journeyintocinema.bsky.social

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Exploring the outer edge of film at journeyintocinema.com

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 3d

A new newsletter from Journey Into Cinema. Unsung films from the bowels of cinema history; a much-needed antidote to the current era of forgettable streaming slop. Subscribe today!

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No More Slop! #1

Here's what you should be watching instead!

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Reposted by Journey Into Cinema

Nick Kouhi @nkouhi.bsky.social · 3d

I love getting the chance to write about my favorite strand in NYFF for @journeyintocinema.bsky.social. Here are my thoughts on just a few of the showcased titles in this year's Currents.

Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 3d

"If this medium is going to survive the automisation and co-optation of artistic labour, it must prove malleable in responding to the myriad ongoing global crises."

Nick Kouhi surveys new films by Radu Jude, James Benning and Tsai Ming-liang at NYFF!

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Currents Review | New York Film Festival 2025

From Radu Jude's take on AI slop to Benning's pointedly political piece, Currents at NYFF has its experimental finger on today's disintegrating world.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 3d

@nkouhi.bsky.social

Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 3d

"If this medium is going to survive the automisation and co-optation of artistic labour, it must prove malleable in responding to the myriad ongoing global crises."

Nick Kouhi surveys new films by Radu Jude, James Benning and Tsai Ming-liang at NYFF!

journeyintocinema.com/currents-nyf...

Currents Review | New York Film Festival 2025

From Radu Jude's take on AI slop to Benning's pointedly political piece, Currents at NYFF has its experimental finger on today's disintegrating world.

journeyintocinema.com

Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 5d

"If this medium is going to survive the automisation and co-optation of artistic labour, it must prove malleable in responding to the myriad ongoing global crises."

@nkouhi.bsky.social takes on the always entertaining and provocative Currents section at NYFF!

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Current Responses to a Degrading Status Quo

New films in New York by Radu Jude, James Benning, Sharon Lockhart and Tsai Ming-liang

Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 7d

Exclusive Journey Content available when you subscribe to paid!

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Don't Pay for Black Phone 2

Put That Coffee Down and Pay for a Journey Paid Tier Instead

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 7d

"It starts, as many horror sequels do, with the key question: how on earth can I move beyond the trauma of the last movie?"

The Danteesque Black Phone 2 shows that the worst layer of hell is all *ice*

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Black Phone 2 by Scott Derrickson Review | Reviews

Scott Derrickson's marginally better sequel Black Phone 2, the spirit of Dante's Inferno is chanelled to frosty — in both senses of the word — results.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 25d

"The sunny, carefree Mallorca vibe clashes with the quiet pain inside the house — like life keeps moving, but you’re caught in a moment that changed everything."

TIFF feature Forastera is another instalment of a new Catalan filmmaking wave.

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Forastera by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias Review | Discovery | TIFF

Lucía Aleñar Iglesias' promising debut finds a unique angle on coming-of-age and haunted house tropes — marking her as a director to watch.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 27d

"Barragán miscues by taking us from an emotionally nervy first two acts into a closing one where catharsis comes with a soft touch, rather than spiking or maintaining the tension."

David Katz reviews Orizzonti entry The Ivy from Venice!

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The Ivy by Ana Cristina Barragán Review | Venice Film Fest

Borrowing Reygadas' DOP, Ana Cristina Barragán's taboo-breaking film The Ivy doesn't satisfy, even if it keeps us curious.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · 28d

"How do you survive in a world that wants you gone, especially when that violence begins at home? How long can you keep turning the other cheek before something inside you breaks?"

Trans Iranian thriller Between Dreams and Hope plays at TIFF!

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Between Dreams and Hope by Farnoosh Samadi Review | TIFF

Farnoosh Samadi's blistering thriller Between Dreams and Hope captures the compromises of a young trans man navigating the difficulties of modern-day Iran.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Sep 5

"Pablos has crafted a modern erotic drama centred on working-class men that offers a fascinating — and at times deeply disturbing — journey through Northern Mexico’s highways and truck stops.'

Queer road trip En el camino wins the Queer Lion!

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En El Camino by David Pablos Review | Orizzonti | Venice

David Pablos' riveting Mexican film En El Camino, winner of the Queer Lion, presents a fresh take on the queer road trip movie.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Sep 4

"People get scared, turn on each other, and look for someone to blame — making it clear how easily fear and desperation can be used to keep existing power structures in place."

Coronavirus is labour oppression in Stephan Komandarev’s Made in EU.

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Made in EU by Stephan Komandarev Review | Venezia Spotlight

Stephan Komanderev uses the coronavirus pandemic to explore the horrors of labour exploitation in one of Europe's poorest regions.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Sep 4

"When a film leans so heavily into muscular bodies, eroticised violence, and women reduced to collateral damage — even with critical intent — it risks becoming what it claims to criticise."

Gorgonà is empty incel nonsense with a silly woke ending.

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Gorgonà by Evi Kalogiropoulou Review | Critics' Week

Evi Kalogiropoulou's deeply disappointing Gorgonà leans so heavily into fascist aesthetics it starts to resemble the very thing it criticises.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 30

"For in the end, these seven days, irrespective of their bearing upon our real world, feel strangely inconsequential."

Patrick Fey reviews Mother, playing in Orizzonti at Venice Film Festival!

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Mother by Teona Strugar Mitevska Review | Venice Film Fest

Noomi Rapace is highly forbidding as the Saint of the Peripheries in Mitevska's Mother Teresa biopic, yet this seven-day narrative ends up disappointing.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 30

"When he realises what’s actually happened, we’re as disoriented as he is. It’s a chilling demonstration of how convincingly the mind can rewrite reality."

Otec takes us into the mind of a frazzled father in a harrowing story of a simple, fatal mistake.

journeyintocinema.com/otec-review/

Otec by Tereza Nvotová Review | Orizzonti | Venice Film Fest

A father makes a devastating mistake in Tereza Nvotová's Otec, bleak and hellish depiction of every parent's worst nightmare.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 17

"Part of growing up is letting go of the fantasies we’ve built — about love, friendship, identity, and belonging — and facing the future as we really are."

Fantasy is THAT GIRL. Jared Abbott reviews from Locarno.

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Fantasy by Kukla Review | Concorso Cineasti Del Presente

A transgender Macedonian woman radically transforms the lives of a group of tomboys in Kukla's assured and heartfelt Fantasy — live from Locarno!

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 17

"Mosquitoes leaves you moved but a little uncertain about what you just experienced."

Jared Abbott reviews this bold and messy swing from Valentina and Nicole Bertani, live from Locarno!

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Mosquitoes by Nicole and Valentina Bertani Review | Locarno

Not everything in Mosquitoes lands, but its big, and bold swings show off the ambition of Nicole and Valentina Bertani's off-kilter coming-of-age vision.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 16

"His thesis on the artistic process is therefore a straightforward one: 'A good work is how well it depicts human sadness.'"

Joseph Owen's final review from Locarno, dives deep into a curious, yet radically empathetic Japanese competition work.

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Two Seasons, Two Strangers by Sho Miyake Review | Locarno

Two distinct, writerly stories emerge from Sho Miyake's pen in his wistful adaptation of Yoshiharu Tsuge's manga Mr. Ben and His Igloo, A View of the Seaside.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 13

"Mordantly funny, Sorella di Clausura offers a balm to the upright seriousness found elsewhere in Locarno’s main competition"

Joseph Owen reviews Sorella Di Clausura, live from Locarno!

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Sorella di Clausura by Ivana Mladenović | Locarno

Ivana Mladenović's mordantly funny Romanian film Sorella di Clausura offers a welcome comic contrast to Locarno's usual so-so-serious fare.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 13

"Again, the viewer is invited to fill in the gaps: what do we need to perceive in order to understand?"

Joseph Owen reviews Alexandre Koberidze's Dry Leaf, live from Locarno!

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Dry Leaf by Alexandre Koberidze Review | Locarno

Dry Leaf, Alexandre Koberidze's much anticipated follow up to What Do We See When We Look At The Sky, is another meandering exploration of family and football.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 12

"What Aljafari has managed to achieve in With Hasan in Gaza, through this edited and refashioned material, is, in many ways, astonishing."

Joseph Owen reviews With Hasan in Gaza, playing in competition at Locarno!

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With Hasan in Gaza by Kamal Aljafari Review | Locarno

Kamal Aljafari's urgent With Hasan in Gaza might be shot in the autumn of 2001, but its images speak firmly to the present onslaught by the Isreali regime.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 11

"That question lingers. Are we really happy in monogamy — or just too cautious (and complacent) to find out?"

Quebecois comedy Follies explores the joys — and pitfalls — of opening up your marriage, to often hilarious results.

journeyintocinema.com/follies-revi...

Follies by Éric K. Boulianne Review | Locarno Film Festival

Éric K. Boulianne's debut comedy drama Follies explores the joys — and pitfalls — of opening up a marriage, to often hilarious results.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 11

"Its demonstration of the so-called didactic method reveals an influence on one of the great unheralded films of the 21st century: Malmkrog."

Joseph Owen reviews Roberto Rossellini's 1974 history film Year One, playing in Locarno Heritage

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Year One by Roberto Rossellini Review | Locarno Heritage

A fresh restoration of Robert Rossellini's hagiography of a centrist Italian prime minister proves an unlikely forebearer for Cristi Puiu's iconic Malmkrog.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 9

"I found my first Ben Rivers film, a tale of a decaying world inhabited solely by children, completely stultifying."

Locarno Competition entry Mare's Nest belongs in a museum!

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Mare's Nest by Ben Rivers Review | Concorso Internazionale

Ben Rivers' latest feature is a long and meandering slog through the apocalypse that might work in a museum, but is deadening on the big screen.

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Journey Into Cinema @journeyintocinema.bsky.social · Aug 8

"Their blurring of reality and imagination serves a more grounded purpose: to understand social relationships in periods of geopolitical crisis."

@joseph_owen_ reviews White Snail, the latest work by Space Dogs duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter!

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White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter Review | Locarno

Space Dogs directors Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter's first fully fiction feature White Snail is a dark and disturbing love story set in Belarus.

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