Given that our society devotes significant effort to the conception and raising of children, both through the actions of parents and through our educational systems, We Need To Talk About Kevin contains a very pressing and contemporary kind of trauma, one connected deeply to women’s liberation, to child-raising in the “new” American family and to violence in our educational system. The movie is an adaptation of the 2003 novel of the same name by Lionnel Schriver, helmed by critically acclaimed Scottish director Lynne Ramsey (Ratcatcher, Morven Callar). A chilling, nihilistic...

Divorce is a messy procedure in the United States, not only for its ramifications for the separating couple but also for their families. Add Iran’s highly codified Islamic law, conflicts of gender and class, and the alienation and frustrations of a law that cannot account for human emotion, and we begin to approach a situation akin to the tragedy depicted in Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation. The film opens with a shot of Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and his wife Simin (Leila Hatami) petitioning an off-camera judge for divorce. The factors that...