Reviews by Nikola Jovic

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  No Fairy Dust (2026)

  Review preview for No Fairy Dust

  The jumps from scenes in the style of Romanian New Wave to stylised oneiric dream sequences are so sharp that the overall result feels jarring in a way that undermines both stylistic choices.

  A retelling of the Cinderella story on the margins of modern day Serbia.
• 
  Forastera (2025)

  Review preview for Forastera

  Aleñar Iglesias... presents the ordinary world as loaded with meaning.

  During her Mallorca summer, Antonia recognises similarities with her late grandma. She develops an influence over her mourning grandpa through dress-up, blurring who inhabits who.
• 
  Wind, Talk To Me (2025)

  Review preview for Wind, Talk To Me

  Wistfully intimate, but also has honesty and courage in dealing with grief and acceptance of the inevitable in the final moments of one's life.

  After hitting a stray dog with his car, a young filmmaker takes care of the dog while trying to finish the film he was making with his late mother.
• 
  Wardriver (2026)

  Review preview for Wardriver

  While this film has the undeniable oldschool sensibility, it never feels archaic or out of joint with its time.

  A young vigilante hacker gets pulled into a series of robberies that clash with his morals.
• 
  Storm Rider: Legend Of Hammerhead (2026)

  Review preview for Storm Rider: Legend Of Hammerhead

  Its biggest problem is that its main protagonist and his love interest are never fleshed out and could basically be boiled down to all too known Hero With a Thousand Faces tropes

  A young hero must harness the powers of the long forgotten Hammerhead and the Element in order to protect his loved ones.
• 
  The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

  Review preview for The Conjuring: Last Rites

  The Conjuring is in its biggest state of non-belonging since its beginning.

  Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
• 
  Here (2024)

  Review preview for Here

  He manages not only to reveal a thesis statement on his entire career, but also dive into the experimental territory like never before.

  A typical middle-class family struggles with financial troubles in an ever-changing world, caught in a historical web of circumstances they’re unaware of.
• 
  Cloud (2024)

  Review preview for Cloud

  Even though we’re essentially talking about a basic shot-reverse shot exchange, framed in creeping wide angles, juxtaposed with close-ups, the feeling is comparable to watching a getaway heist.

  An online scammer, reselling faulty products at preposterously high rates, is on the run after some of his customers decide to hit back.
• 
  Souleymane's Story (2024)

  Review preview for Souleymane's Story

  There is a feeling of being in a constant movement, with cars and buildings whizzing by as Souleymane is rushing through the city, either riding his bike, or running from one type of public transport to the next.

  Two days in the life of a bike delivery guy who is trying to get asylum.
• 
  The Nights Still Smell Of Gunpowder (2024)

  Review preview for The Nights Still Smell Of Gunpowder

  A lot of the time, we talk about forgetting as a form of letting go, but in Inadelso Cossa’s sophomore docu-fiction feature, forgetting is a haunting, undead, presence.

  A filmmaker tries to revive his memories of the war raging in a Mozambique village through soundscape exploration and interviews with the villagers.
• 
  Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End of the World (2023)

  Review preview for Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End of the World

  The film engages in dialogue with the ‘81 film as a way of ideological critique of what were, and to an extent still are, the mechanisms of obfuscating reality.

  Overworked and underpaid, Angela drives around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a 'safety at work video' commissioned by a multinational company. When one of the interviewees reveals the company’s liability in his accident, a scandal erupts.
• 
  Légua (2023)

  Review preview for Légua

  ... houses almost feel like tombstones. Personal existential projects that demarcate that someone once cared for and poured their will and effort into them.

  When one of the women looking after a mansion with absent owners falls ill, her younger colleague takes on the responsibility of caring for both her and the mansion, even to the detriment of her own family.
• 
  Creatura (2023)

  Review preview for Creatura

  Trauma here isn’t a switch turned on by a force strong enough to propel it into being, but instead, it’s a slow-burning reflective state.

  A woman realises the source of her trauma and sexual appetite after returning to her coastal-town home.
• 
  The (Ex)perience Of Love (2022)

  Review preview for The (Ex)perience Of Love

  Instead of flooring the pedal and being a wild ride, the film stays within the speed limit.

  A couple who are unable to have children learn that because they suffer from Past Love Syndrome, the only solution is for them to sleep with all their exes again.
• 
  Blonde (2022)

  Review preview for Blonde

  After we take aside all well-intentioned intellectualising, and all the nice-looking shots, what we have are almost three hours of over-aestheticised torture.

  A fictionalised chronicle of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe.
• 
  The Beheading Of John The Baptist (2022)

  Review preview for The Beheading Of John The Baptist

  In a way, this household is like a Venn diagram of all the values at play within Serbian society, each pulling in their own direction while they’re all participating in someone else’s fantasy.

  In spite of strict social distancing measures, a dysfunctional family celebrates St Patron’s Day, with their impulses for self-indulgence leading to an eruption of chaos.
• 
  Have You Seen This Woman? (2022)

  Review preview for Have You Seen This Woman?

  The mixing of fiction and reality, as well as a lot of aesthetic choices, make for an interesting echo of the Yugoslav Black Wave aesthetic.

  Through three different life possibilities a middle-aged woman tries to get out of her skin.
• 
  Safe Place (2022)

  Review preview for Safe Place

  The transcendental nature of the film feels like an existential and therapeutic need.

  24 hours in the life of a man who is trying to kill himself while his family members try to save him.
• 
  Sick Of Myself (2022)

  Review preview for Sick Of Myself

  The film is less about ambition or striving for success, as it’s about the fetishisation of that image of success, and how striving for the perfect image can destroy you.

  Signe and Thomas are in an unhealthy, competitive relationship that takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist.
• 
  Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

  Review preview for Smoking Causes Coughing

  There is a complete disregard for any kind of consequence or continuity in this film, and you know that the rug could be pulled from under you at any second.

  Tobacco Force are superhero avengers, preparing for their clash with the mighty Lezardin. But what if the real horrors are the stories they tell to each other along the way?
• 
  As Far as I Can Walk (2021)

  Review preview for As Far as I Can Walk

  Strahinja’s whole journey leaves the feeling of participating in a sort of pilgrimage with him, via a vérité shooting style that works all the steady-cam shakes in its favour, adding to the film's authenticity.

  Strahinja and his wife Ababuo left Ghana with a dream of a better life in Europe, only to find themselves stranded in Serbia. One day, Ababuo goes missing.
• 
  Rifkin's Festival (2020)

  Review preview for Rifkin's Festival

  This new film, like all the others, has some of that old Woody sauce as well that gives it some charm, but it’s a mere shadow of its old self.

  The story of a couple who attend San Sebastian Film Festival only to find their romance tested.
• 
  Memoria (2021)

  Review preview for Memoria

  For all the talk of hermetical storytelling, this might be his least hermetic and most approachable movie to date.

  A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance.
• 
  Ahed's Knee (2021)

  Review preview for Ahed's Knee

  As a whole, it appears way too kinetically ostentatious for its own sake, sadly making it less than the sum of its parts, but there are things to appreciate here.

  An Israeli filmmaker throws himself in the midst of two battles doomed to fail: one against the death of freedom, the other against the death of a mother.
• 
  Pilgrims (2021)

  Review preview for Pilgrims

  Bareisa successfully contrasts the slow long takes and great blocking, making it a well-balanced watch that will engage you on multiple fronts despite its withholding of many common cinematic devices to facilitates its ambivalence.

  A pair of old friends revisit the scene of a crime with unexpected consequences.
• 
  To Kill The Beast (2021)

  Review preview for To Kill The Beast

  Tamara Rocca’s beautifully subtle performance of Emilia easily carries the entire film.

  A teenager arrives in a village on the border between Brazil and Argentina, looking to find her brother. Her stay at aunt's hostel where people are shaken by the appearance of a mythical beast, will incite an emotional journey of sexual rediscovery.
• 
  107 Mothers (2021)

  Review preview for 107 Mothers

  Despite all of its shortcomings, 107 Mothers nonetheless, makes for quite a completing piece of filmmaking.

  Docufiction considering the lives of mothers in Odessa women's prison.
• 
  Unapologetic (2020)

  Review preview for Unapologetic

  Their stories complement each other, driving home the message that social justice is not a performative media statement, but a matter of courage in the face of existential threat.

  Fed up with misdeeds committed by Chicago law enforcement and a political system unwilling to hold anyone accountable, two millennial Black women take action.
• 
  Anatomy (2021)

  Review preview for Anatomy

  Ola Jankowska’s puzzling and thought-provoking, but nonetheless, engagingly sombre feature debut, will have us grasping for a sense of meaning and yearning for some kind of an emotional release.

  Mika’s return to her home country, in order to tend her sick father, will set her on a trip down memory lane in search of warmth and connection.