Told from multiple perspectives, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster is a multi-faceted drama about a lack of understanding in our world.
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Lanthimos: Kinds of Kindness (2024)
The working title of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindnesses was And. In some ways, that was a more apposite title, since this anthology comedy is obsessed with one of the uncanniest spectacles in a hyper-connected world: the physical spaces and silences between things. The structure of the film itself reflects that interest in connective tissue […]
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Sorrentino: Parthenope (2024)
Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, Parthenope, is one of the most alluring of his career – and that’s really saying something. It’s about a young woman, the Parthenope of the title, played by Celeste Della Porta, who is born into a wealthy Neapolitan family in the 1950s. Most of the film takes place in the 1970s, […]
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Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) is a charming mix of 90s teen culture and classic romance. This film adapts Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, setting it in a high school context and focusing on two sisters, Kat and Bianca Stratford. Their father has a strict rule: Bianca, the popular younger […]
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Happy New Year! Nothing rings in another year like a review on a film focusing on the economic collapse of the late 2000s, right? Anyway… Montages of excess and breaking of the fourth wall allow The Big Short to perfectly illustrate the underlying messages throughout the film. That is to say, the economic greed and […]
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Sid and Nancy (1986)
Sid Vicious came out of the British working-class. He was rude, uneducated, violent, and profane. Unlike Keith Moon, who was one of the greatest drummers who ever lived, he wasn’t even a particularly good musician. Nancy Spungen came out of the American middle-class. She was an abrasive, emotionally needy substance abuser who wasn’t even particularly […]
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The Piano Lesson (2024) is an American drama film from director Malcolm Washington, producer Denzel Washington (his father) and starring John David Washington (his brother). It tells the story of the Charles family in 1930’s Pittsburgh, as they debate whether to sell a piano that has become a family heirloom. The film debuted at the Telluride […]
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And so I’ve been on a bit of a Hemingway kick while reading a brand new book (Just released) by favorite author Mark Kurlansky. Kurlansky tracks some of his adventures in journalism alongside those of Hem while on assignments and travels in Europe, Cuba and elsewhere. I didn’t read this particular […]
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Anora
Anora makes it clear why no woman — no man — should marry the son of a Russian oligarch. In Sean Baker’s comedy the title character, played by Mikey Madison, meets Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) at a Manhattan club where she’s a sex worker and after a dizzy weekend he plays Richard Gere to her […]
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Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Everyone’s so concerned about her baby, what about poor Rosemary herself?
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Saltburn wasn’t on my radar at all until it seemed to take my workplace by storm. ‘You like films don’t you, Alex? You might like Saltburn. It’s on Prime. Good but proper weird, don’t put it on if there’s any kids around.‘ I’d say that put it on my watchlist, but that doesn’t really mean […]
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In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
Nagisa Oshima’s controversial erotic art film, “In the Realm of the Senses,” as it is known in the United States, has two other titles. L’Empire des Sens (Empire of Senses) in France, and an original Japanese title, Ai no Corrida (Bullfight of Love). For once, I believe that the Americans got it right with their […]
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Milos Forman ran away from his home country, Czechoslovakia, after the Russian tanks put down the more liberal Czech government, and he was subsequently fired from the Czechoslovakia state-run movie studio. His American movie that he most likely felt an affinity for was his cinematic interpretation of Ken Kesey’s brilliant exhibition of the totalitarian […]
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Mom, Is That You?!こんにちは、母さん
Just like Clint Eastwood, who is still making films at 93, 92-year-old Japanese filmmaker Yoji Yamada (山田洋次) is also proving that age is just a number. The man who brought the world the beloved TORA-SAN series has recently released his 90th work, MOM, IS THAT YOU?! It’s the third film in his “Mother” series that […]
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Only the River Flows 河邊的錯誤
If you’ve been watching the movies coming out of China over the past few years, you’ve no doubt noticed that many… okay, most… of them have a patriotic bent. Gone are subjects that the government has deemed to undermine national security, and that means no more movies about corrupt cops or government officials because they […]
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Cesium Fallout 焚城
With China’s heavy hand of censorship now firmly on the neck of the Hong Kong film industry, our filmmakers have learned they must toe the line if they wish to secure both funding and distribution for their projects. Gone are the days when corrupt police or government officials feature prominently in local stories because, we […]
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Elvis (2022) Review
Elvis is an overlong but enjoyable look back at the rise of Elvis Presley! Typically Baz Luhrmann in style and tone, this is easily one to watch on the big screen!
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Successor 抓娃娃
It’s one of the biggest domestic releases in China this year. SUCCESSOR, which debuted on July 16, is closing in on US$500 million at the box office and this is even before its roll-out to other markets. The film is opening in Hong Kong this weekend and the big question is whether local audiences here […]
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The Beta Test Review
Bursting onto the scene in 2018 with the brilliant indie film Thunder Road, Jim Cummings returns with his brand new film that he stars, writes and directs in. The Beta Test is another dark comedy that follows Jordan, a Hollywood agent that receives a mysterious letter that invites him to a hotel to participate in […]
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A coming-of-age drama set in Kent, England, Bird tells the story of a rebellious twelve-year-old girl with an eye for the innocent beauty around her. Though unfamiliar with the works of writer/director Andrea Arnold, I was surprised to find a quiet calmness in her depiction of the female preteen experience. She manages to capture an […]
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