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In director Dominik Moll’s superb 2022 police thriller, The Night of the 12th, the focus was on French detectives pursuing a vicious killer who was forever out of reach. The closer they came to nabbing him, the more he got away, leaving them to turn in circles year after year during a long, existential quest that left none of them unscathed.

In that movie, the cops were flawed human beings and clearly chauvinistic (there was only one woman on the squad), but they were still the good guys. In Dossier 137, a piercing slow-burn examination of police brutality, the tables have turned and the cops have become the criminals, making us question the very notion of policing in a France racked by social unrest and class division. Made with the same laser-cut precision as his previous work, but with a greater emphasis on procedure than before, Moll’s new thriller...

Andor Season 2's latest batch of episodes had several stress-inducing, nail-biting moments that will be remembered for a long time. For a show where the lead character's fate is known, that's an impressive achievement. All the credit goes to the writers and directors for creating heart-pounding scenarios that were not for the faint of heart.

Here are the 6 most nerve-wracking moments from Andor Season 2, Episodes 7-9:

1. Cassian takes Senator Mon Mothma to safety

(L-r) Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) in Lucasfilm's Star Wars Andor Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. ©2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. & Tm. All Rights Reserved.

After her courageous speech, Cassian's job was to help Mon Mothma escape the Senate before she could be arrested. This led to what felt like the longest walk of Mon Mothma's life, as she and Cassian encountered a traitor who nearly shot her, her driver, Kloris,...

Kids can be difficult, but so can our parents and guardians. Such notions are explored with an artistic hand in David Depesseville's debut narrative feature, which will be released Friday, Sep. 1. Astrakan — whose mystery of a title is finally revealed in the film's groundbreaking third act — is French Impressionism at its finest, chronicling hard-hitting, slow-burn sequences of a young orphan named Samuel (Mirko Giannini). It's an utterly realistic portrayal of youth in revolt that sheds light on the work of Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows) and could even fit well into a Wes Anderson film — I'm looking at you, Moonrise Kingdom.

Gripping French cinema is often hard to refute, even if this isn't exactly a commercial-grade project. But sometimes, less is more — and here, the simple yet lush 16mm film component allows Astrakan to really shine.

A Gripping Look at Youth in Revolt

First, a word about French Impressionism,...

Astrakan Review — Astrakan (2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie directed by David Depesseville and starring Mirko Giannini, Lisa Heredia, Bastien Bouillon, Cameron Bertrand, Nathael Bertrand, Theo Costa-Marini, Paul Blain, Lorine Delin and Jehnny Beth. Astrakan is filmmaker David Depesseville’s coming-of-age story of a young boy in foster care [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Astrakan: French Coming of Age Movie Loses its Way [Locarno 2022]...