SIFF 2026: 'Fifteen' Movie Review

As we all know, growing up is a horror show with no equal. Such is the case for BFFs Ligia (Greta Marti) and Mayte (Macarena Oz). Outcasts, the poor kids at their hoity-toity private school, they’re bullied and mocked and picked on. All they want is to stage the perfect joint quinceanera and show up their priggish classmates, a plan that goes awry when Ligia’s ne’er-do-well boyfriend is bitten by a sewer monster and knocks her up. An unwanted teen pregnancy is tough enough, but in writer/director/brother duo Jack Zagha Kababie and Yossy Zagha’s Fifteen (Quince), it is much more monstrous than that. 

'Parvulos' (2024) Movie Review

Isaac Ezban’s Parvulos: Hijos del Apocalips is very literal in its title. These are actual children of the apocalypse. Salvador (Farid Escalante Correa), Oliver (Leonardo Cervantes), and Benji (Mateo Ortega Casillas) are three brothers, the oldest, Sal, a young teen, surviving on their own after a virus causes the end of the world. They do all the typical apocalyptic things, scrounge food, do their best to get through every day, and tend to the dark, sinister secret lurking in their basement. 

'The Exorcism Of God' (2022) Movie Review

Exorcism movies get overplayed for sure, but there’s a good reason for that: When they hit, they tap into a primal, inherent fear, playing on themes of control, faith, and religion that shake people deep, deep down, even non-believers. Director Alejandro Hidalgo’s The Exorcism of God doesn’t entirely land in this regard, but despite leaning on familiar tropes, it has unique flourishes and goes crazy enough that it winds up being pretty awesome and a damn entertaining watch.

'Tigers Are Not Afraid' (2017) Movie Review

Though I usually wind up liking but not loving his movies as much as many other people, Guillermo del Toro has an infectious love and enthusiasm for film. Especially horror. In 2018, the same year he won a Best Picture Oscar for The Shape of Water, he declared Issa Lopez’ Tigers are Not Afraid one of his favorite films of the year. And it’s easy to see why he approves, as it bears a heavy influence of films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone, while maintaining its own identity. Though it’s taken its sweet time, Tigers has finally hit theaters and is one of the best films, in any genre, you’re likely to find.

NBFF 2019: 'The Gasoline Thieves' Movie Review

From the first moments of Edgar Nito’s The Gasoline Thieves, tragedy seems inevitable. The film opens with a dark, tense scene where to rival crews attempting to siphon off gas in the Mexican desert violently clash. This creates an ominous, inescapable cloud that lingers over everything to come. That isn’t to say the film is without moments of heart or levity, but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that bad things are in store.

'Roma' (2018) Movie Review

Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma is everything everyone says it is. Gorgeous and formally flawless, the director’s precision and meticulous craft is unmatched, and his deep, personal connection to the story readily shines through. Yalitza Aparicio delivers a wonderful performance. The milieu is layered, thematically dense, and someone much smarter than I am will have a field day unpacking relationships between the lower class maid Cleo and the wealthy family she works for. (THIS ARTICLE examining how poor people’s stories, especially those of domestic workers, are always told from the perspective of the rich, with a special eye on current Latin American cinema, is a good place to begin.)