Movie reviews of Victor Fraga

Observational nature offers insight into the life of moths and the human beings researching them, in a film experience oscillating between the hypnotic and the soporific. Review

Highly experimental, bonkers Romanian film follows three lonely citizens of Bucharest as desperately seek to inject meaning into their lives. Review

Father and son battle for the love of a seductive young woman, in this elegant however prosaic Iranian drama-turned-crime-thriller from Iran. Review

A genuine cringe drama, with subtle comedic elements. Review

While mature and artistically accomplished, Anaïs Tellenne’s directorial debut fails on other fronts. The narrative is just too lethargic, and the ending is as predictable as the outcome as the last Russian elections. Review

Fine acting and credible developments help to craft a vividly painful portrait of youth. Review

Wacky, deadpan comedy traverses an ordinary winter day inside a heavily polluted city of Northern China. Review

The interactions and vivid and warm, much like the colourful and radiant cinematography. Heylen conveys a sense of strength and determination, which is anathema to the toxic masculinity that often prevails in an all-male house household. Review

This a heartfelt, gentle and at times funny coming-of-age drama, grappling with the very familiar topic of subtle female oppression. Despite the underwhelming ending and the foregone moral and ethical conclusions, Girls Will Be Girls remains a potent cinematic piece. Review

Jewish American tap dancer has to stomp his way to the top of the Nazi regime, in what's possibly the worst film adaptation of Arthur Miller ever made. Review

Sombre and elegiac Kazakh drama observes the shocking repercussions of modern-day slavery, and unbridled sadism. Review

Claustrophobic spider horror keeps viewers on the edge of their seat, as flesh-eating arachnids terrify a suburban council block in France. Review

Luc Besson's fanciful and bizarre allegory of animal love and crossdressing is resolutely barking mad. Review

Argentinean horror offers a "rotten" twist on the well-worn zombie genre, in a movie as mangled and gruelling as the victims portrayed. Review

Coralie Fargeat's deliciously bonkers body horror is a grotesque, groovy and hilarious riff on sexism, ageism, and the absurd beauty standards forced upon women. Review

The Most Precious of Cargoes boasts a message of hope and resilience, and an ending that’s both beautiful and disturbing, if a little muddled. Review

The movie is lifted by a heart-stopping soundtrack, which includes Price’s Nothing Compares to You and The Cure’s A Forest, ensuring some moments of emotional rapture. These are not enough to justify the epic duration of a largely unimaginative story. Review

New York pole dancer marries the spoiled child of a Russian millionaire, in Sean Baker's high-octane class struggle comedy. Review

Miguel Gomes's new film has the aesthetic ambitions and also some topical similarities with his masterpiece Taboo, yet the soporific travelogue of Asia slips into artistic banality. Review

Fugitive finds shelter inside one of Brazil's pervasive sex hotels, in Karim Ainouz's colourful but tepid psychosexual thriller. Review

Chiara Mastroianni in incorporates her late, famous father into her life (moustache, fedora hat et al) - in Christophe Honore's sweet but unremarkable piece of autofiction. Review

Paolo Sorrentino's new drama is an ambitious tribute to his native Naples and to gorgeous nymphets: a pompous, verbose and superficial comment on "beauty". Review

David Cronenberg revisits familiar themes such as body mutilation and morbid sexual attraction in his new sci-fi horror, a very personal movie with significant religious elements. Review

Biopic of misanthropic Russian writer is dissonant with the self-righteous, futile and unpleasant subject portrayed; plus it barely feels Russian. Review