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Siddhant Adlakha

Siddhant Adlakha

Polygon

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Lukas Dhont’s ‘Coward’ Renders Queer Desire Against the Machinery of War

The film, for all its faults, subverts hyper-masculine war tropes to focus on intimacy, queer desire and art as a tool of survival.

02.06.2026 4

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Cannes: Marine Atlan’s ‘La Gradiva’

The Cannes Critics' Week selection (and Grand Prix winner) marks the feature debut of Atlan, who crafts an enormously affecting tale of volatile...

29.05.2026 6

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Cannes: Los Javis’s ‘La Bola Negra’

The film reimagines and builds on art from the margins, transforming it into the kind of lavish, expensive production that would, in years past, never...

28.05.2026 7

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Cannes: Cristian Mungiu’s ‘Fjord’

This drama provides enough hints to ensure you'll come to quick conclusions about what did or did not transpire, but just as swiftly, the movie widens...

26.05.2026 7

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at SXSW: Boots Riley’s ‘I Love Boosters’

Down with the bourgeoisie? Absolutely. But must the revolution be so sloppy?

26.03.2026 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at the Berlinale: Alain Gomis’s ‘Dao’

Gomis frames intimate family gatherings with documentary immediacy in this meditation on cultural continuity.

25.02.2026 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Berlinale: Markus Schleinzer’s ‘Rose’

While its makers may not think of the film as a transgender story, it speaks the language of one, and actress Sandra Hüller seems to have approached...

24.02.2026 9

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Sundance: David Greaves’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Harlem’

After more than 50 years, the documentary filmmaker's son brings his father’s greatest feat to stunning completion

28.01.2026 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Sundance: Gregg Araki’s ‘I Want Your Sex’

While not exactly a return to form, the filmmaker's first feature in a dozen years is nonetheless a welcome comeback.

27.01.2026 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

The Best Documentaries of 2025

It was a year of riches—theatrically, on streaming and awaiting distribution.

24.12.2025 40

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at NYFF: Scott Cooper’s ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’

Jeremy Allen White’s conception of Springsteen is joyful to witness, but the film offers little to engage with beyond its performances.

23.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at NYFF: Radu Jude’s ‘Dracula’

It’s hard not to wonder if Jude assumes the film's intended audience isn’t on his level, resulting in a compromised piece that stops dead in order...

17.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at NYFF: Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’

This gentle drama—which won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival—seems unassuming at first but builds its three semi-related sagas...

15.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at NYFF: Bradley Cooper’s ‘Is This Thing On?’

The story examines how creative release can both mask and magnify personal turmoil, tracing one man’s attempt to turn emotional chaos into...

11.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at NYFF: Ronan Day-Lewis’s ‘Anemone’

His directorial debut is filled with powerful ideas, even if it doesn’t cohere enough to be consistently engaging.

09.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at BFI London Film Festival: Sophy Romvari’s ‘Blue Heron’

By the time the film's credits roll, you may feel more spiritually connected to yourself and those you’ve lost.

07.10.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at TIFF: Akinola Davies Jr.’s ‘My Father’s Shadow’

Cinematographer Jermaine Edwards’ thoughtful use of high-contrast celluloid yields a warm and detailed texture, like a living photograph.

26.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at TIFF: Gabriel Mascaro’s ‘The Blue Trail’

Mascaro's direction and Guillermo Garza's cinematography provide a consistent, simmering momentum.

24.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at TIFF: Agnieszka Holland’s ‘Franz’

Holland all but stops short of invoking mass-produced Che Guevara t-shirts to make her point about the vulturous ways Kafka’s work and life have...

23.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at TIFF: Nia DaCosta’s ‘Hedda’

As visually pristine as it is dramatically dull, it’s one of the fall festival season’s most perplexing “prestige” films.

17.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Venice: Gus Van Sant’s ‘Dead Man’s Wire’

Whatever Van Sant’s feelings about this kind of subject matter may have once been, he appears to now translate them through a lens of sheer...

13.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Venice: Mike Figgis’ ‘Megadoc’

This at-times intriguing portrait of Francis Ford Coppola’s creative process is never allowed to probe deeply enough.

13.09.2025 20

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Venice: Anuparna Roy’s ‘Songs of Forgotten Trees’

Roy’s approach is melodic and understated, and mines drama from human corners where other storytellers might not think to look.

11.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Venice: Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Bugonia’

The filmmaker has reimagined a cult classic for an era defined by online conspiracies and unchecked digital influence.

09.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Venice: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘After the Hunt’

The film means well, but its conflicts are so haphazardly conceived that it ends up making a mockery of the very themes it purports to approach.

08.09.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Tribeca: Robert Petit’s ‘Underland’

The Darren Aronofsky-produced documentary explores the emotional and symbolic weight of descending into the Earth.

23.06.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Tribeca: James Sweeney’s ‘Twinless’

Dylan O’Brien stars (twice) in this grief-tinged drama with twisted turns.

17.06.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Tribeca: Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s ‘Re-Creation’

It’s a moving and at times risky film that uses a grisly real-life murder to turn the lens on our fascination with true crime.

16.06.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

The Power of ‘Yes!’ and the Limits of Dissent at Cannes

Each of these films is incredibly accomplished, but the sensations they individually re-create can all be found bunched together in Lapid’s furious...

03.06.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Cannes: Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Die, My Love’

Bought by MUBI for a whopping $20 million, Lynne Ramsay’s untamed relationship drama—starring Jenifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson—opens like a...

27.05.2025 10

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha

Screening at Cannes: Mascha Schilinski’s ‘Sound of Falling’

As visually innovative as it is thematically stunning—and buzzed about for the Cannes Palme d'Or—'Sound of Falling’ connects a century of...

16.05.2025 20

Observer

Siddhant Adlakha