About Defacto Film Reviews

There is often a certain melancholy to ghost movies—even when they are at their most terrifying, they often rely on themes of past trauma, grief, and other forms of reconciliation. Those themes cross over again [...]

The tastes of the public at large when it comes to art are a constant enigma. Often works of great depth and intelligence are passed over while something perceived as lower quality catches hold in [...]

No more kids in chocolate factories or fantastical candy lands. In Wonka, the origin story that is based on Roald Dahl's iconic character, which has now been played by three actors, including the late Gene [...]

An impressively skillful performance by both Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan provides some riveting emotional depth for Maestro, a stylized, conventional, and uneven biopic of the late Leonard Bernstein. While showcasing some orchestral scenes with [...]

Greek provocateur Yorgos Lanthimos's adoration for surrealist aesthetics and edgy material is apparent once again in Poor Things, this time showing a fascination for silent movie aesthetics and highly stylized artificial settings with racy themes [...]

After the release of the brilliant The Wind Rises in 2013, legendary director Hayao Miyazaki announced that he was retiring from work on feature-length films. After a 30-plus year career filled with visionary works of imagination, it [...]

A surrealist satire that takes a lot of aim in its commentary doesn't always rise to the occasion, but it draws some rich ideas about our modern meme culture. Very much in the vein of [...]

Perhaps Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki's (The Man Without a Past, Le Havre) simplest film of his 40-year career, an amusing and bittersweet seriocomedy, Fallen Leaves breaks no ground; it's executed like his other films, but [...]

Surprisingly, the legendary historical figure Napoleon Bonaparte has never had a historical Hollywood epic, and the grandiose new epic Napoleon doesn't live up to the potential this story has to offer. Despite some stunning battle [...]

The transition from childhood into the teenage years can be among the most turbulent years of a person’s life. Thoughts, actions, and relationships change, and kids often feel alone during this time. Even those with [...]

The massive undisclosed mansion at and around Drayton House, Northamptonshire, is the stage for desire, imitation, and obsession in Saltburn, the sophomore feature by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). Though even more [...]

Mostly a film about performance and partly about identity, Todd Hayes's May December is quite a fascinating film on many levels. An artful, rangy, and engrossing psychological drama that merges elements of melodrama, wry humor, [...]

Plagued with anger, embarrassment, and the inability to coach a team to the World Cup, Dutch American soccer coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is given the ultimatum of being fired from his position as a [...]

As film appreciation has continued to grow in the last few decades or so, in part due to Blu-Rays, DVDs, and streaming, which have spawned social media film cultures and bubbles, you can now spot [...]