“It’s going to get weirder and weirder and weirder, and finally it’s going to get so weird that people are going to have to talk about how weird it is.” -Terrence McKenna
Liar Liar
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023)
“Pham sinks his teeth in his debut feature with a politic but formulaic blueprint, his own distinct originality has yet to materialize. So whether he could be hailed as a new auteur to be reckoned with, the jury is temporarily out until his next offering, which has its own shell to break.”
Engage Intellect (Let Go)
I’m cold, but rowing with this icy current. Embracing The “Wu wei” principle of Taoism.
WHIPLASH
It’s impossible to find absolute perfection. I don’t care if it’s in the field of medicine, law, mathematics, art or even music. No one is THE ONE. Yet, if you are determined to partake in that hunt, it’s likely you’ll scream with frustration. You might think you’re on to something but still it’s not quite […]
The Room Next Door (2024)
Almodovar’s first English-language feature doesn’t quite strike gold, but Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore give riveting performances as two friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time, exploring themes of mortality and morality.
Universal Language (2024)
Rankin’s sophomore feature feels like Kaurismaki meets Kiarostami as his surreal, and at times perplexing tale brings us through a hybrid Canadian-Iranian space marked by quaint shophouses and bustling highways.
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)
A brilliant idea to set a ‘warring gangs’ action film in the iconic if long-demolished Kowloon Walled City, but this comic book adaptation feels numbingly empty with its stylistic excesses a tonal mismatch with the more sobering space of marginality and exploitation.
Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)
Natural prehistory comes to life in a series of special effects ‘attractions’ as Zeman’s charming adventure sees four boys enter a cave that transports them back to millions of years ago.
1969
1969 is summoned in a pat and predictable yet sincere, excellently acted, frequently moving 1988 drama about two families caught up in and forever changed by events in that wild final year of an extraordinary decade. Ernest Thompson had scored a big win some years earlier writing On Golden Pond; this time out he directed […]
The Happy Ending
THE HAPPY ENDING, one of those misery-doesn’t-really love-company dramas that usually revolve around married women approaching or arrived at middle age. Written, produced & directed by Richard Brooks in 1969, it gave his wife, actress Jean Simmons, 40, a strong finish to the decade. After the 1960 glories of Elmer Gantry (Brooks directing) and Spartacus, apart […]
‘Babygirl’ TIFF Review: A Delightfully Kinky Ride for the Sickos
Halina Reijn challenges simplistic morality and puritanical standards about human interaction through this delightfully risqué erotic drama.
REVIEW – “The Brutalist”
Brady Corbet delivers a monumental epic unlike anything you’ll see this year
‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’
Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 magnum opus, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” has long been considered one of the greatest works of modern literature. However, during Márquez’s life, he refused to sell the rights to the novel because he felt a film adaptation would not come close to scratching the surface of this […]
The Heretic: A Dive into Psychological Horror and Faith
The Heretic, directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, dives deeply into religious philosophy and psychological terror, starring Hugh Grant in an unsettling departure from his typical rom-com roles. Set primarily in a claustrophobic, dimly lit house, The Heretic weaves tension through intellectual debate and moments of […]
Thelma
It’s been two years since her husband passed away and Thelma Post (June Squibb) is adjusting to her new reality. She’s 93 years old and fiercely independent. While Thelma spends most of her days home alone ,she keeps in frequent contact with her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) and her daughter Gail (Parker Posey). One day […]
A Kid (Le fils de Jean)
Matthieu (Pierre Deladonchamps) just received the call that his father died. The father he never met. The father he didn’t even really knew existed. The father he couldn’t meet in life but now must get to know in death. His mother always told him that Matthieu was the result of a one-night stand. But the […]
Sundance: Pleasure
Directed by Ninja Thyberg, Pleasure casts a critical eye on the porn industry, which has a cycle of abuse that particularly affects women. Rooted in realism it watches very much like a fictionalized version of a documentary.
Review: Spring (2014), Romance Meets Body Horror in Italy
When Americans leave home in search of meaning somewhere on the European continent, it’s usually a recipe for disaster (at least in the world of horror cinema). Young, brash, naive Americans have to face ancient beasts (The Ritual), human traffickers (Hostel), and even covens of witches (Suspiria). Watching enough horror films might make you think […]
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend
He was the greatest car maker of all time and a visionary like no other. Except, there have been others and we’ve seen their movies too. Ferrari did it most recently, Ford v. Ferrari did it better. It’s hard to make the same story feel fresh and Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend falls into […]
Sundance: The Disappearance of Shere Hite
Biographical documentary brings sex researcher Shere Hite, who revolutionized how we view women’s sexuality, back into the spotlight.