Staff Critic · Thrillers & Prestige TV
James writes on tense, plot-driven thrillers and the growing overlap between prestige television and feature filmmaking.
76 reviews published on Celluloid
★★★★½
Sam Mendes's 1917 (2019) endures as a defining war landmark from United Kingdom, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Martin Campbell's Casino Royale (2006) endures as a defining action landmark from United Kingdom, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★★
Fernando Meirelles's City of God (2002) endures as a defining crime landmark from Brazil, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Lee Unkrich's Coco (2017) endures as a defining animation landmark from Mexico, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave (2022) endures as a defining romance landmark from South Korea, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Can Evrenol's Distant (2023) endures as a defining sci-fi landmark from Turkey, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine (1993) endures as a defining drama landmark from China, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Shuchi Talati turns a teenage romance at a strict Himalayan boarding school into a sly examination of inherited shame, with a mother-daughter rivalry that gives the coming-of-age formula real bite.
Essential viewing — among the finest films in Indian cinema.
★★★★½
Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Germany, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Riri Riza's Habibi Amina (2019) endures as a defining drama landmark from Indonesia, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Eugenio Derbez's Instructions Not Included (2013) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Mexico, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Worth watching for context — influential even where opinions split.
★★★★½
Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003) endures as a defining thriller landmark from South Korea, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★☆
JJC Skillz's Omo Ghetto: The Saga (2020) endures as a defining action landmark from Nigeria, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory (2019) endures as a defining drama landmark from Spain, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) endures as a defining crime landmark from Japan, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
John Woo's Red Cliff (2008) endures as a defining action landmark from China, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★★
Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) endures as a defining animation landmark from Japan, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★☆
Qerim Önsöz's The Butterfly's Dream (2013) endures as a defining drama landmark from Turkey, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (2013) endures as a defining drama landmark from Italy, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Alejandro Amenábar's The Others (2001) endures as a defining horror landmark from Spain, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside (2004) endures as a defining drama landmark from Spain, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Anna Muylaert's The Second Mother (2015) endures as a defining drama landmark from Brazil, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In (2011) endures as a defining thriller landmark from Spain, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★☆
Kemi Adetiba's The Wedding Party (2016) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Nigeria, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
James Cameron's Titanic (1997) endures as a defining romance landmark from United States, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Yasujirô Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) endures as a defining drama landmark from Japan, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Pedro Almodóvar's Volver (2006) endures as a defining comedy landmark from Spain, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Strongly recommended — a staple of its national cinema.
★★★★½
Makoto Shinkai's Your Name (2016) endures as a defining animation landmark from Japan, with scores that still shape how audiences discover cinema from the region.
Essential viewing — a certified classic.
★★★★½
Mark Obenhaus traces Seymour Hersh's decades of unwelcome scoops in a documentary that doubles as a masterclass in why dogged reporting still matters.
Essential for anyone who cares about truth in an age of noise.
★★★★★
Lund stretches one last amateur ballgame into a shaggy elegy for small-town ritual, finding poignancy in the sport's dead time and enduring friendships.
Patient, shaggy, and unexpectedly moving — if you meet it on its own clock.
★★★★☆
Gints Zilbalodis's Latvian cat-survival fable proves dialogue is optional when every frame carries this much beauty and feeling.
The best animated film you haven't seen yet — until now.
★★★½☆
India Donaldson's piercing debut turns a Catskills backpacking trip into a quiet study of how fathers fail their daughters.
A sharp debut that splits audiences and rewards patience.
★★★★½
Lee Byung-hun gleefully unravels as a laid-off company man in Park Chan-wook's pitch-black comedy — unemployment anxiety turned into a musical nightmare.
Dark, daring, and darkly funny.
★★★★★
Pasolini resists melodrama, trusting Norton's tender performance to carry a dying father's impossible search for his son's future family.
A weepie that earns every tear through restraint.
★★★★★
Kleber Mendonça Filho folds pulpy genre thrills into a pointed reckoning with Brazil's dictatorship years, anchored by Wagner Moura's haunted performance.
A sprawling political thriller that earns its ambitions.
★★☆☆☆
Iyabo Ojo's long-awaited sequel reunites a starry cast but can't decide if it's a thriller, a political drama, or a spiritual parable.
Overstuffed and unfocused
★★½☆☆
Omar Chaparro trades comedy for combat in a revenge thriller with genuinely first-rate action and a script that can't keep pace with it.
Spectacular stunts, thin story.
★★★½☆
Daniel Etim Effiong's directing debut turns a wedding-day abduction into an uncomfortably real portrait of Nigeria's kidnapping crisis.
Tense and timely, if overstuffed