Carlos Aguilar, Author at The Playlist

‘Huda’s Salon’: Hany Abu-Assad Offers a Fearless Reckoning on Women’s Oppression in Occupied Palestine [TIFF Review]

September 12, 2021 12:24 pm

There’s no escape for the women in Hany Abu-Assad’s blistering new film “Huda’s Salon,” a fearless statement on gender oppression shaped as an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Back in top form, the acclaimed direct...

‘Captain Volkonogov Escaped’ Is A Devastating Thriller About A Law Enforcer Seeking Atonement [Venice Review]

Carlos Aguilar

September 9, 2021 1:22 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

The attires worn by the young men that conform the USSR’s National Security Service (NKVD) in the extraordinary Russian thriller “Captain Volkonogov Escaped,” from directors Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupo...

‘Sundown’: Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg Play Siblings In Michel Franco’s Tragic Acapulco-Set Drama [Venice Review]

Carlos Aguilar

September 5, 2021 2:49 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

Anyone familiar with the work of Mexican director Michel Franco, whether they be admirers or detractors, can attest to the “this is not going to end well” sentiment his sordid cinematic provocations instill. W...

‘Bitterbrush’: Picturesque Doc Gallops Along Two Cowgirls Facing Crossroads [Telluride Review]

Carlos Aguilar

September 4, 2021 8:56 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

Swaddled in the vastness of the mountainous American West, two young women command the terrain and their own destinies in Emelie Mahdavian’s picturesque documentary “Bitterbrush.” The sturdy duo at the helm, H...

‘The Green Knight’: David Lowery Enthralls With An Epic Feat of Bold Imagination About Human Weakness [Review]

Carlos Aguilar

July 26, 2021 12:00 pm

Features, News, Reviews

Bravery is scarce in the heart of Gawain (Dev Patel), at least in the intrepid form attributed to medieval warriors fighting wars with immeasurable carnage. “I’m not a knight,” he exclaims ceaselessly througho...

Tatiana Huezo’s ‘Prayers for The Stolen’ Is A Magnificently Lucid Portrait of Girlhood Under Siege [Cannes Review]

Carlos Aguilar

July 16, 2021 8:30 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

Tatiana Huezo’s eye for lyrical truth has materialized in documentaries like “Tempestad” or “The Tiniest Place,” works that penetrate some of the most tenebrous corners in recent Latin American history with sh...

‘Where Is Anne Frank’: The Past Speaks To The Present In Ari Folman’s Spellbinding Animated Revelation [Cannes Review]

Carlos Aguilar

July 9, 2021 12:39 pm

Features, News, Reviews

A storm rages in Amsterdam, but that doesn’t deter visitors from lining up outside of the Anne Frank House to get a glimpse of her famous diary and gaze upon the rooms she once inhabited. A home address refash...

With ‘The Souvenir: Part II’ Joanna Hogg Completes Her Introspective Masterwork [Cannes Review]

Carlos Aguilar

July 8, 2021 4:15 am

Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

Midway through Joanna Hogg’s seismic “The Souvenir: Part II,” a continuation to her 2019 feature begotten from personal remembrances, her fictional alter ego, Julie (Honor Swinton-Byrne), sits in a van surroun...

‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’: Jasmila Zbanic’s Bosnian Drama Is A High Wire Act Of Immense Tension & Devastating Humanism [Review]

Carlos Aguilar

March 10, 2021 2:22 pm

News, Reviews

Teacher-turned-indispensable-interpreter, Aida (Jasna Djuricic), runs around a crowded United Nations base relaying messages amid a humanitarian crisis on the brink of devolving into an unspeakable catastrophe...

‘A Cop Movie’: An Incisive & Formally Daring Deep Dive Into Mexico City’s Police Force [Berlin Review]

Carlos Aguilar

March 4, 2021 9:57 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

The first thing to understand about the social dynamics in Mexico around police is that they differ greatly from how the public in the United States relates to law enforcement officers. Stateside, both the...

Author Carlos Aguilar