Kelly Reichardt likes uncomplicated. As early as when “Wendy and Lucy” came out her films have testified to her ultra-sharp minimalism and efficiency. “Night Moves,” a genre film in which three environmentalists (they're David Koresh league, but for the tree-hugger set) conspire together to blow up a dam follows the same ethos of subtlety. In lieu and place of a psychological drama about eco-terrorism Reichardt ventures

After "If you die, I'll kill you" ("Si tu meurs, je te tue" in French) Kurdish filmmaker Huner Saleem has teamed up with Golshifteh Farahani again in this modern-day western set in a Kurdistan that's emerging from years of civil warring. In this second film with the Iranian actress Saleem subtly juggles epic with intimate, the tragic with the comical. And while he borrows from the genre's archetypes he also manages to avoid its pitfalls.

(this is Screen Comment's second review of "Nebraska") American indie cinema also has its giants. Just like his cohorts Wes Anderson and Jason Reitman Alexander Payne has, after directing only a few movies, spearheaded this other cinema in which America and its history fill the screen and the script. As it were in “Nebraska” America is the focus. Not the one that’s portrayed by superheroes but indeed the one that we've come to gradually forget.

Guillermo Del Toro is a kid again and this summer he's invited us into his room. Digging deep within 20th century pop-geek culture while exploring his beasty imagination ("Hellboy 2: the Golden Army"), Del Toro has turned out one of the most unlikely and eery films I've seen in a while. It had to be done, in a way, and he's done just that. And who better than him for the task of convincing us that a crack in the space-time continuum exists

Danish cinema is becoming more and more relevant. After the sublime "A Royal Affair" which came out last year, the Danes are darkening the summer skies with a film of a rare intensity, and one which is doubtlessly proof of their commitment to the medium and their innate talent for it. Yes, the Danes are taking filmmaking seriously and it is a joy to behold.

In this hostage-taking

According to interviews which he gave afterward Werner Herzog was shaken up by it, and it's understandable why. When shooting for "The act of killing", which he co-executive-produced, began, it's likely that he did not know such a major upheaval was about to occur in documentary filmmaking. Just like Joshua Oppenheimer, who lensed this film, did not expect to shoot such a documentary upon returning to Indonesia.

I think we can all agree that whoever says blockbuster doesn't necessarily mean subtlety and intelligence. That's a fact. On the other hand, he who speaks "Christopher Nolan" speaks resurection, restoration and myth reinvented. "The Dark Knight" trilogy behind him, Nolan has been re-emerging as producer and screenwriter, on "Man of Steel," which to have added some zest and some pep. And who better than Zach "300"

At a time when filmmakers are getting lost in a fog of 3-D conversions and assorted digital shenanigans there’s a resistance forming: small DIYers, emerging poets of the film negative, those who make their voices heard through simple yet effective movies. Jan Ole Gerster is such a filmmaker. "Oh boy" recounts the absurd, touching and melancholy wanderings of a young German through a Berlin that would have made

Contrary to her ideological and racial brethren (Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, to name a few) Angela Davis has survived. She wasn't shot down like some of her peers who paid for their political committment with their own lives. No. Angela Davies is alive today and her story deserves to be told. And it's through a no-pretense documentary, without frills or gimmicks like in the glossy biopics that Hollywood is so good

Tom Cruise is indestructible, it seems. After escaping unscathed out of the Paramount fiasco, he now teams up with Universal to help create a sci-fi blockbuster that's ambitious and breathtaking. In any case, that's what was promised on paper. Because "Oblivion" did hold promise, yes--on a large scale. All the elements were there for serious, high-brow sci-fi entertainment: a namesake graphic novel adapted by the don dada of sci-fi geeks