Reviews

With the rise of COVID-19 shutting down indoor movie theaters, drive-ins saw something of a rebirth in 2020-21. It was the only option for entertainment for many people. A way to both go out and…

The Rocky franchise has left an indelible mark on cinema history. It created the blueprint for the modern sports movie that had audiences passionately cheering for the underdog and making them want to get up and…

As a seasoned film viewer, it takes quite an experience to truly rattle me. This is the long-term effects of a lifetime of desensitizing myself by a (possibly unhealthy) overexposure to horror films. I find…

As someone who spent the first eight years of my life in a turbulent, abusive household, generational trauma is something I have thought about often throughout my adulthood. For some, there is a palpable fear…

In reflecting on the year, a film that always comes up in my mind is Audrey Diwan’s 1960s abortion drama, Happening. Many would point to the film’s startlingly prescient release just weeks before the Dobbs…

There’s a palpable sense of “less is more” in Joanna Hogg’s brand of formalism. Her camera is happy to sit back and observe, only moving very precisely when the scene calls for it. Commonly shooting on…

Abortion is one of those topics that are guaranteed to generate strong opinions, regardless of where one stands on the political and religious scale. At the end of the day, it is just another medical…

One of the first notable visuals in Laura Poitras’s landmark documentary, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, is an excerpt slideshow from Nan Goldin’s legendary photography collection, “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” — as good a time…

Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, Mark Jenkin will be the name on everyone’s lips when it comes to talking about British films. Bait will be included on film schools’ syllabi along with the likes of…

“It wasn’t easy, but it’s worth it”. These words from co-writer and star of Bros, Billy Eichner, in his Q&A after its Melbourne premiere screening resonated with a thundering echo. Not just in terms of…

LEVINE. To those even decently well-versed in the classical music world, the name James Levine is likely to bring forth a slew of contradicting reactions. On one end is a sense of deep reverence: Levine…

When you envision the legacy of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, you’re probably familiar with his distinct improvisation style — his winding melodies, harmonies, techniques, and dissonances that have since gone down as hallmarks in jazz…

An expansive, white-walled studio. A camera crew helmed by director Ruth Beckermann. A lavish, pink-red sofa that’s previously been used for erotic films. And 100 men, aged from 16 all the way to 99, who…

The legacy of South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo seems largely separated from the stylized and dramatized sensibilities of his Korean New Wave contemporaries — the more minimalistic and theatrically conversational mise-en-scéne of his films seems…

While it’s easy to look at the repertoire of films about COVID and deem them redundant, oftentimes incredibly lazy ways to artistically reflect a universal experience, perhaps the most distinctive among them have been the…

They say all publicity is good publicity, and Olivia Wilde’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Booksmart has brought with it a cascading deluge of behind-the-scenes gossip. From conflicting reports on Shia LaBeouf’s departure from the project, Wilde’s affair…

Florian Zeller surprised the film world two years ago with his debut feature film, The Father. That film is one of the masterpieces of the 2020s, and it features what may be the best performance…

Steven Spielberg has offered plenty of magical dreams over the years. It’s redundant to list his filmography as his repertoire speaks for itself. Steven Spielberg is a name synonymous with film. His iconic status is…

“It’s a whodunnit. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all,” is a line heard more than once in Tom George’s directorial debut, See How They Run. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but that doesn’t…

I will always have a soft spot for Kevin Smith. Even if you aren’t fond of his dick jokes, any cineaste will admire his ascent as a filmmaker. He’s one of the great examples of…

There’s a scene towards the middle of Abi Damaris Corbin’s Breaking (originally titled 892 at its Sundance 2022 premiere) in which former Marine Lance Corporal Brian Brown-Easley (played by John Boyega), after being withheld from his disability check for…

The self-described “dark fairy tale,” Squeal (also known as Samuel’s Travels) is a truly international affair: the film comes from Latvia, has an Armenian writer/director, the lead actor is from Belgium, and the narrator sounds…

January 9th, 1997. David Bowie stands before a massive crowd at Madison Square Garden at a special concert event for his 50th birthday and exclaims, “I don’t know where I am going from here, but…

It may be an obvious sentiment at this point, but it’s become genuinely difficult to look at the world around us and not think that something’s gone completely, ineffably, and gradually wrong. In the midst…

It seems that a fair portion of Film Twitter has turned on A24. I make this observation because I pretty consistently see people mocking it as a brand, or more specifically, the specific type of fan associated…

Leave it to Claire Denis to create the best representation of the pandemic onscreen yet. There are no Karens yelling over masks, no contagion spreading like wildfire. Instead, masks are a visual motif for the…

I had my come-to-Jesus moment with the MCU while watching Hawkeye a few months back. I had liked WandaVision and Loki enough, so why not try it out, I thought. Ten minutes in, the phone…

If you were to ask me for a list of the most exciting directors working today, Jordan Peele would be very high on my list, if not at the very top. In 2017, Peele burst…

I’ll admit it, when Neon announced that Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new film, Memoria, would embark on a never-ending, roadshow-style film tour across the country forever — meaning there will never be a streaming or Blu-ray release…

There is something quintessential American about the story of Jerry and Marge Selbee, two retirees who exploited a loophole in the lottery system and made themselves rich. A story like this can only become truly…