After my last dispatch’s uncommon thematic synergy, I’ve come back with two films that, on their face, couldn’t be any more different in

Unlike the rest of the dispatches I’ve written out of Sundance, the selections here are not defined by their competitive category. This one

Locarno isn’t a film festival. It’s a pilgrimage. My journey to the legendary festival, which celebrated its 77th edition this year, involved planes,

A cool and collected Shula (Susan Chardy) drives into the opening scene dressed like Missy Elliott in “The Rain” music video. When she

A modern update to the Greek playwright Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, “Chi-Raq” immediately found controversy using Chicago’s South Side (particularly the ensuing bloody gang wars,

As a silent film director, Micheaux was at his strongest: His literary style (he wrote seven novels in total) imbued his intertitles with

Tragedy has rendered Linda (voiced by Melinée Leclerc) into a deeply dissatisfied child: She suddenly lost her culinary father when she was a

It’s a feeling most deeply felt in the aching reveal shared by Navorski and Warren. “So what am I seeing,” Warren asks Navorski,

The latter consideration is a lens that feels particular to Diop’s desire to give voice to the most disaffected. In this case, it’s

Ben is a failed film student who spends his days managing an arthouse movie theater and watching Criterion discs such as Ozu’s “Good