Caroline Tsai, Author at The Playlist

Filmmaker Andrea Arnold On ‘Cow’: The Beauty & Brutality Of Nature In All Is Unglamorized Truth [Interview]

July 24, 2021 11:25 am

Andrea Arnold is aware that cows roaming the countryside is an image cut straight from the cloth of pastoral English iconography, the stuff of Victorian novels and Renaissance paintings. “ a lot of our modern ...

‘New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization’: Bill Murray-Led Classical Music Special Is An Ode to Live Music [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 18, 2021 11:49 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

“This stuff is junk, what we’re doing,” Bill Murray deadpans in the middle of “New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization.” The live audience onscreen—a strange sight after a year and a half of social distancing a...

‘Nitram’: Caleb Landry Jones Is Chilling In Justin Kurzel’s Portrait Of An Infamous Australian Mass Shooter [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 18, 2021 11:14 am

Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

Though “Nitram” never depicts the unspoken horrific massacre that its protagonist commits, the entire film queasily pulses in the anxious anticipation of the unspeakable event. It’s not an easy film to watch, ...

‘Hold Me Tight’: Mathieu Amalric Deconstructs Loss With Vicky Krieps in A Fractured Family Drama [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 17, 2021 10:50 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

It’s rare for the last ten minutes of a film to radically change your opinion of the movie at large, let alone your entire viewing experience, but in “Hold Me Tight” (“Serre-Moi fort”), which premiered at the ...

‘Memoria’: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Meditates on Ecology & Time With Tilda Swinton In A Slow Burn Dream [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 16, 2021 8:12 am

Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

In one scene of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria,” Jessica (Tilda Swinton) and a friend browse refrigerated cabinets designed to preserve flowers. “In here, time stops,” the saleswoman says proudly, gestur...

‘Paris, 13th District’: Jacques Audiard Dreams Up A Millennial New Wave ‘Jules & Jim’ [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 16, 2021 7:56 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

Few films have accurately captured the definitive Millennial experience—lovelorn, cash-strapped, self-absorbed, and tech-addicted—though a few have tried, and some even succeeded. Modern love is no joke, as fi...

‘A Hero’: Asghar Farhadi’s Moral Quandary Film Questions The Weight of a Good Deed [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 15, 2021 8:32 am

Features, Festivals, News, Reviews

In “A Hero” (“Ghahreman”), Asghar Farhadi blurs the line of innocence and guilt in a fraught drama about the true weight of a good deed. During a two-day reprieve from prison, Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) and h...

‘Deception’: Arnaud Desplechin’s Chatty Philip Roth Adaptation With Léa Seydoux Needs Less Talking, More Action [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 14, 2021 12:39 pm

Festivals, News, Reviews

In Arnaud Desplechin’s “Deception” (“Tromperie”), one character’s husband is described as “passionate about dazzling, interesting women.” In this adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel of the same name, one can’t h...

‘The Innocents’: Eskil Vogt’s Latest Is A Violent & Disturbing Nightmare Of Childhood [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 14, 2021 8:59 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

What do we really know about children? Until the Renaissance, artists were still painting them as freakish shriveled adults. Only in the last century-ish did American society decide they probably should go to ...

‘Ali & Ava’: Clio Barnard’s Unlikely Romance Strikes a Sweet Chord [Cannes Review]

Caroline Tsai

July 13, 2021 9:41 am

Festivals, News, Reviews

What do fans of Sylvan Esso dance house remixes and Bob Dylan have in common? Almost nothing, you’d imagine, and you’d probably be right. But in Clio Barnard’s sweet, unlikely romance “Ali & Ava,” which pr...

Author Caroline Tsai