Rory O'Connor

[Berlin Review] Hedi

The protagonist and namesake of Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi certainly isn’t cinema’s first leading man to seek validation from a more free-spirited woman, and it's...

[Venice Review] De Palma

Earlier this year, Kent Jones’ Hitchcock /Truffaut -- a documentary on the famous interview sessions between the two directors -- boasted perhaps the most chaot...

[Venice Review] Heart of a Dog

As the Venice Film Festival enters its final phase, the competition throws up perhaps its most unknown quantity as celebrated New York City polymath Laurie Ande...

[Venice Review] Anomalisa

What exactly has been brewing in Charlie Kaufman’s head for the last 7 years? This heart-wrenchingly worrying film, it seems....

[Venice Review] The Event

If the films competing for the Gold Lion so far this year have taken an abstract, decorative or glamorized view of the real world, the ones being shown in the o...

[Venice Review] Janis

A chance oddity has occurred in the great European festivals this year. With no clear discernable connection between them, biopics of arguably the three most fa...

[Venice Review] Equals

Lobbing the proverbial one up for dissatisfied critics to knock out of the ballpark, Drake Doremus’ Equals is a love story set in a dystopian future where emoti...

[Venice Review] In Jackson Heights

How amazing it is that a human being one century from now can fire up their wind-powered neuro-image-emitter, put on Frederick Wiseman’s In Jackson Heights, and...

[Venice Review] Spotlight

The latest film from Thomas McCarthy, the actor-turned-director behind The Station Agent and Win Win, focuses on the Pulitzer-winning Spotlight team from the Bo...

[Venice Review] Beasts of No Nation

If there were any question marks still floating over Cary Fukunaga’s credentials, his latest film, Beasts of No Nation, should flick them aside with ease. Based...

Rory O'Connor

Irish-born, Berlin-based, Rory O'Connor has been covering the European film festival circuit since 2012. A regular contributor to The Film Stage, his work has also appeared in Frieze, The Playlist, and CineVue.