“Only The Lonely”: Sex Work under Capitalism in Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber’s ‘Cam’
Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam (2018) begins with camgirl Lola entertaining her male clients with a series of erotic…
Reviews
Review: Hikari’s ’37 Seconds’ – Berlinale
A balancing act between dependence and self-determination characterises Yuma Takada’s (Mei Kayama) story as told in 37 Seconds, a film…
The Precarious Politics of Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘The Favourite’
In The Monstrous Feminine, Barbara Creed outlines the horror we associate with images of the interior made exterior. Drawing on…
On Necessary and Unnecessary Love in Karyn Kusama’s ‘Destroyer’
Small talk is boring. We hate it, and it’s obvious why – it’s a begrudgingly necessary preamble to any purposeful conversational exchange,…
Macabre Dancing: ‘Die Kinder der Toten’ (‘The Children of the Dead’) – Berlinale
Elfriede Jelinek’s novel Die Kinder der Toten [The Children of the Dead,1995], which has yet to be translated into English, tends to be…
Review: Notes to Self by Christina Battle – part of Forum Expanded, Berlinale
“MY ALGORITHMS ARE ALL FUCKED UP” I watch the words of this phrase – printed in an all-caps, blue serif font – slowly vanish…
‘Can You Ever Forgive Me’: An Ode To Queer Failure
In 2015, Todd Haynes’s Carol explored some of the complexities surrounding lesbian experience in ‘50s New York. The film, beautifully…
Review: Bora Kim’s ‘House of Hummingbird’ (‘Beol-sae’) – Berlinale
Bora Kim’s House of Hummingbird had its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival last October, but I saw it…
What goes up must come down: Marie Kreutzer’s ‘The Ground Beneath My Feet’ – Berlinale
“She’s not fit for this life,” says Lola to a doctor as they stand together beside her sister’s hospital bed….
Two people in a house: Catherine Corsini’s ‘An Impossible Love’ (‘Un amour impossible’)
The poster for An Impossible Love shows a man with his back turned, eyes averted, hands in pockets. He’s facing…
Notes on Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’
The first plane in Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma sails across a snatch of sky mirrored in soapy water; the next, in…
On ‘Killing Eve’
Is it possible to tell when a television programme has been masterminded by a woman? And if so, what is…
Super-ego, super-charged: Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Suspiria’
While Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name (2017) received general acclaim last year, one particular critique cut through the…
“I have always wanted it”: Sebastián Lelio’s ‘Disobedience’
Disobedience, Sebastian Lelio’s adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name, follows the story of Ronit, a lapsed Orthodox…
Learning to Care: Adina Pintilie’s ‘Touch Me Not’
To be intimate and vulnerable with another involves being honest with oneself, or so the saying goes. This task is…
No Year of Rest and Relaxation: On Emily Atef’s ‘Three Days in Quiberon’
Near the end of Emily Atef’s Three Days in Quiberon (2018), a cinematic snapshot of the life of Romy Schneider,…
The Act of Taking: Lee Chang-dong’s ‘Burning’
If a sign is a premonition, it points to a future; if it’s a clue, a past. But sometimes a…
Bare life, corrupt elites and surviving in today’s America: On Steve McQueen’s ‘Widows’
While the United States Senate was debating the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh in Washington DC, the trial of a century…
On ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, crazy rich Asia, and capitalism in the time of postcolonial love
A truth universally acknowledged in East Asia is that a wealthy married woman with ample free time is in want…
Have you Earned this Parody? On ‘Assassination Nation’
Begin to wonder what you do write about. Or if you have anything to say. Or if there even…
Naomi Kawase’s ‘Vision’: Poetic Worlds and Vegetal Camerawork
Naomi Kawase’s Vision takes place in a rural zone of the Nara Prefecture. This is the region in Japan where…