review
Obsession
As a horror film, it is a decent debut for such a young director on a shoestring budget, but did leave me wanting for more given the promising Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Wishmaster meets social critique premise.
Reviews
late night reviews and rants about film and other media
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review
The Testament of Ann Lee
While I appreciate that the duo behind this took some stylistic creative choices to depict the ecstatic nature of their communal rituals, I am clearly not this film's target audience. To me, it ultimately came of as superficial, unfocused, aimless and ultimately just downright boring.
review · Berlinale
A New Dawn
For as clumsy as a the storytelling is, at the very least this debut film by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, a PhD in traditional Japanese art, undeniably works as an impressive display of the director's talents as a visual artist.
review
Heretic
Let's feature Hugh Grant as a charming, manipulative villain in a film that deconstructs religion. Slowly make the main characters question their core beliefs and sanity as they spiral downwards into the web of a reasonably intelligent narcissist hellbent on control of young women but too self obsessed to see the flaws in his actions---slowly giving himself away.
review
Eagles of the Republic
In his first film in the Arabic-language Cairo trilogy, Swedish-Egyptian director Tarek criticizes pre-revolution political corruption; in his second, the Muslim Brotherhood; with his latest release, the neo-noir political thriller Eagles of the Republic, Tarek is more daring, taking aim at the active ruling Egyptian government. Except, due to sloppy writing and historical inaccuracies, it is not very effective at doing so.
review
Tuner
What began as a formulaic yet charming Rain Man meets Drive crime thriller unfortunately collapses under its own clumsy writing in the last act.
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review
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Deals with the topic of gender with all the nuance you would expect today from a white feminist born in the 1960s, especially one coming from nobility. But at least the animation is nice.
review
Cloud
The premise of a guy attempting to find freedom through capitalism and hustle his way into wealth as an alternative to the hopelessness felt by the iceberg generation in Japan's stalling economy, yet only to be cornered into inevitable violence is in itself fine, even if not particularly original, but the practical execution is embarrassing for a director of this standing.
review
Die My Love
Ostensibly deals with postpartum depression from a grounded female gaze but instead repeats old tropes of manic pixie female hysteria with an embarrassing amount of feral Lawrence crawling on the ground but make it sexy scenes? Postpartum depression but actually she still really loves and cares for the baby, it's the dog that overstimulates her really.
review
Companion
Ostensibly a darkly satirical revenge comedy about misogyny, female empowerment, and agency against male abusers, the male writer/director makes sure you never forget it is foremost a metaphor, beating us on the head endlessly with a surface-level understanding of abuse dynamics and foregoing any consistency in plot in favor of witty, ironic oneliners aimed at the audience instead of organic dialogue between and towards the on-screen characters.