The Wild Goose Lake
Like Hong Kong filmmakers Johhny To and John Woo, Chinese filmmaker Diao Yi'nan is one of Asian cinemas strongest talents of crime thrillers, infusing most of his films with ravishing [...]
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Another essential and revelatory work from the American independent film arena, "Never Rarely Sometimes Always," the third feature of Eliza Hittman, explores the traumas of two young women who must [...]
Corpus Christi
Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa's "Corpus Christi" is an engaging film about an enigmatic convict named Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia), haunted by internal conflict and past trauma and the shadow of his [...]
2000 Retrospective: The 10 Best Films of 2000
With 2020 upon us, we are mostly staying in to help to stop the spread of COVID-19, I figured it was a good time to reflect back on the essential [...]
Defacto Podcast Appearances
Our podcast appearances on MPI Crew Call is now on iHeart Radio. Give it a listen as podcast host Sara Mahmood along with Defacto film reviewers Noah Damron and Robert [...]
The Jesus Rolls
The Coen Brothers' hilarious 1998 cult classic about mistaken identity and deceit, "The Big Lebowski", is given a loose updating and spin-off with "The Jesus Rolls", a frenzied, unremarkable remake [...]
Greed
Michael Winterbottom's latest film, "Greed" is his most overtly political comedy, a outraged satire on inequality that wears its political agenda on its sleeves but doesn't engage well on a [...]
Bacurau
If the term genre-blurring didn't exist, it would have to be destined to define Kleber Mendonca Filho's and Juliano Dornelles's Brazilian film "Bacurau," a delirious but distinctive post-modern Western political [...]
Swallow
Actress Haley Bennett gets a perfect opportunity to showcase her acting talents in Carlo Mirabella-Davis's feature directorial debut, "Swallow". Bennett plays a layered dramatic role that should elevate her into [...]
Emma.
The Jane Austen tender and sardonic spirit converges expertly in photographer and music-video director Autumn de Wilde's feature film debut of "Emma", an opulent period drama that applies the classic [...]