Marya E. Gates
Movie Reviews

Reflections on the 2025 Tailinn Black Nights Film Festival | Festivals & Awards

In November, the time change hits hard, not just in places that observe Daylight Saving Time. The darkness seems to creep in earlier

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Movie Reviews

Female Filmmakers in Focus: Hind Meddeb on “Sudan, Remember Us” | Interviews

Filmed in the wake of a revolution that gave way to a military coup, Hind Meddeb’s powerfully poetic documentary “Sudan, Remember Us” introduces

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Movie Reviews

Female Filmmakers in Focus: Victoria Mahoney on “The Old Guard 2” | Interviews

Five years ago, filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood broke Hollywood ground when she directed “The Old Guard” for Netflix, becoming the first Black woman to

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Movie Reviews

Female Filmmakers in Focus: Fleur Fortuné on “The Assessment” | Interviews

Set in a future world where no one ages, there are no animals and precious few plants, Fleur Fortuné’s dystopian sci-fi drama “The

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Movie Reviews

More Than Rage: Rungano Nyoni and Susan Chardy on “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” | Interviews

The absurdist drama “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” begins with one of the most indelible images to grace the silver screen in recent

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Movie Reviews

Sundance 2025: Brides, Where the Wind Comes From, Two Women | Festivals & Awards

This year’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition features three films all about characters on spiritual, physical, and sexual journeys toward new versions of themselves.

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Movie Reviews

Female Filmmakers in Focus: Maura Delpero on “Vermiglio” | Interviews

Few things are as common yet as earth-shattering as love and death. Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio” explores these core human experiences in all their

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Movie Reviews

Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg movie review (2024)

Like any number of recent bio-docs, the filmmakers use archival footage, film clips, photographs, and interviews with those who knew her, including director

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Movie Reviews

Space: The Longest Goodbye movie review (2024)

I also found it incredibly curious that Sukjin Han, a crew commander for one of the Mars simulations, was the only interviewee, be

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Movie Reviews

The Future of the Movies, Part 2

This series presents a different essay by a different writer on the first Friday of every month. Each one starts from the premise “The

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