review
The Invite
I went in blind, more or less expecting a slightly more satirical Marriage Story (2019) so this was a fun surprise.
Reviews
late night reviews and rants about film and other media
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review
Erupcja
Nice little character study exploring the immediate surrounding impact of someone that mythologizes their own emotional immaturity and fear of commitment.
review
The Legend of Hei II
Maybe I'm reading too much into this but it feels like a metaphor for geopolitical tension and arguments for peaceful co-existence and mutual cooperation between China and the west.
review
The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan first and foremost makes cinematic spectacles and I was spectacled. Still can't write a woman to save his life though.
review · Berlinale
The Weight
Wonderfully suspenseful action-adventure film that harkens back to the classics without falling into the pitfalls of the racial and gendered insensitivities that have historically plagued them.
review
Living
This remake of Kurosawa's 1952 Ikiru had to be set in a fictonalized, historical post-war London because at its core, more so than a timeless and contemplative exploration of finding meaning in one's live, I find this story to be one of hope and the power of ordinary people to change society for the better--even when bureaucracy and middle-management labor might reduce one's own personhood.
review
Kokuho
Narratively doesn't reach uncharted territory and definitely has some flaws in its plot progression but I'm just a sucker for these types of stories and it more or less hit the same notes for me as Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū did. Could have definitely benefited from developing its female characters though.
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Art College 1994
The big dreams and endless philosophical meandering of an early 20s student.
review
The Substance
A fun, satirical metaphor on the consequences of dealing with male-dictated beauty standards in media, ageism and self-worth determined by vapid objectification.
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The Boy and The Heron
At times a whimsical adventure, The Boy and the Heron is fundamentally about dealing with grief, trauma and human agency.
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Past Lives: Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day
Past Lives, doesn't pack any surprises in its storytelling but there's a kind of melancholic poetry to its visual language that I haven't seen since the 'Before' Trilogy. Quite a strong debut for its director Celine Song, but it doesn't come without caveats.
review
Oppenheimer
Navigating a careful line between art-house cinema and one-liner driven Hollywood blockbuster appeal, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer biopic, which contextualizes the Manhattan Project as a mostly early Cold War-era military endeavor tainted by anti-communist paranoia, is highly ambitious, timely, and, in its cinematography, at times nothing short of brilliant.