One of the best movies of the year, which never forgets to put the characters’ difficult emotions first.

The rare independent animated film that wears its influences on its sleeves.

A beautiful film that avoids easy narrative answers in exchange for emotional honesty about the creative process.

An interview with writer/director Anna Baumgarten on her debut feature.

Molto Bella takes a tried-and-true premise – a forlorn poet travels abroad where he meets the girl of his dreams, who’s also running from something – and doesn’t really do anything unique with it. The cinematography and the use of locations are great (but when you’re shooting in the Italian countryside, how can it not be?). The chemistry between Paul T.O. Petersen and Andrea von Kampen – as Hal the poet and Josie the folk singer, respectively – is palpable, even when their acting styles feel a little stiff.

It’s hard to imagine modern daily conversations without the ever-present emoji. What emerged after the technological takeover of smartphones as a way to express a wide variety of emotions in a simplistic manner quickly spread outside our phones and became inescapable. Socks, pillows, Happy Meal toys, and bumper stickers are only a sliver of the countless products available that have cashed in on the emoji craze in recent years, with no end in sight. Emojis have largely been viewed as a force for good in the world (we can now order pizza with one simple pizza emoji sent via text message). The “face with tears of joy” emoji was named as Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2015. They’ve even withstood the release of The Emoji Movie in 2017.