Festiville

Festiville HQ

Festival coverage, lists and news from the Letterboxd crew.
Still from Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow, in competition at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival (May 14–25, 2024).

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Liked reviews

Oddity

Oddity

★★★★

simply put: don't fuck with witches.

you will not be coming out on top in that situation. ever.

Oddity

Oddity

★★★★½

I will unfortunately be thinking about this movie every single time I go outside to get the mail

SXSW #30:

Legitimately the scariest thing I’ve seen at the festival this year. Reminded me of a lot of Poe stories, particularly The Tell-Tale Heart.

By definition, a romcom is supposed to make us feel, and boy was I all up in my emotions with this one. 

A play that transformed into a realistic and relatable love story featuring the ever charming Jonathan Groff and a lovably awkward Karan Soni. There is so much to rave about when it comes to this script: rich with cultural references, so real it hurts at times thinking of being on the receiving end of a parental threat, and…

so frigging gay and I love it.  My Desi queer heart was bursting with joy the entire time

Monkey Man

Monkey Man

★★★★½

A crunchy, sweaty, down-and-dirty brawler anchored to a bloody, beating heart. It’s not perfect—it’s flawed and messy and filled with forced decisions just like my life. 

It’s maybe not fair to grade the movie on a slight curve based on how much I love Dev Patel and what he went through to make this film, until you grow up and remember that’s exactly how you engage with art. You take it all in, all of the humanity of it, not in a vacuum but inextricably tied to the pulse of human experience.  

Otherwise, what the fuck are we doing here anyway?

Magpie

Magpie

★★★½

Daisy Ridley humiliated a man and the theater erupted in cheers

A slow-burn gothic noir that is delectably petty and creepily conjured, Magpie follows the crumbling of a marriage between a little-known writer and an aggrieved wife instigated by a scandalous starlet. It marks the feature debut of British theatrical director Sam Yates (‘Vanya’ with Andrew Scott), working with a script moulded by screenwriter Tom Bateman from a concept conceived by the film’s enigmatic star and producer Daisy Ridley. Moving at a measured pace, this tension piece is a visually adventurous…