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…
2018
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…
TIFF Review: Alex Ross Perry’s ‘Her Smell’
Alex Ross Perry’s latest feature, Her Smell, focuses on the career of a rock star, Becky (played by Elisabeth Moss),…
TIFF Review: Margarethe von Trotta’s ‘Searching for Ingmar Bergman’
Searching for Ingmar Bergman opens with acclaimed German director Margarethe von Trotta in Gotland, on the rocky beach from several…
Carol Morley’s ‘Out of Blue’: Refractions of “The Female Investigative Gaze”
Following the TIFF world premiere of Carol Morley’s fourth feature-length film, Out of Blue (2018), the director, seated adjacent to…
In praise of teenage self-disgust: ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’
The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, it is those…
Suffering and the Limits of Criticism: Jenny Lu’s ‘The Receptionist’
When Jenny Lu graduated from London’s Chelsea College of Art in 2009, she left with the same bright-eyed optimism typical…
From Object to Subject? Léonor Serraille’s ‘Jeune Femme’ and Agnès Varda’s ‘Vagabond’
The ‘free’ woman walking the city has become something of a popular myth, particularly in recent works of biblio-memoir, or…
“I wanted to make a film that makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the storm”: An interview with ‘Shakedown’ director Leilah Weinraub
People warned me that my first Berlinale would be surreal, but nobody prepared me for the experience of sitting down…
‘Ocean’s 8’, Anna Delvey, and our love for the woman who wants to own the world
Debbie Ocean has been in prison for five years, eight months, and 12 days. Her brother Danny is dead. Probably….
Jaume’s World: The Patriarchal Imaginary of Jaime Rosales’s ‘Petra’
Note: Review contains a few of many spoilable plot points. Petra, the sixth feature from Spanish arthouse director Jaime Rosales,…
“Learn to love your claustrophobia”: Jason Reitman’s ‘Tully’
Watching either of the two trailers for Tully, the third collaboration between Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman, you’d be forgiven…
Cannes Review: Agnieszka Smoczynska’s ‘Fugue’ (‘Fuga’)
There’s a scene in Agnieszka Smoczynska’s second feature film, Fugue, where the husband of amnesiac protagonist, Alicja (screenwriter Gabriela Muskała),…
Cannes Review: Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ (‘Lazzaro Felice’)
The idea for Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) reportedly came to Alice Rohrwacher when remembering an article she had read…
Cannes Review: Jafar Panahi’s ‘Three Faces’ (‘Se Rokh’)
Jafar Panahi’s Three Faces begins with a suicide video that may or not be real. A well-known actress, Behnaz Jafari…
Care at the Margins: Debra Granik’s ‘Leave No Trace’ (2018)
What does it mean to retreat, to withdraw, to leave the village for the forest? Is it a rejection of…
Cannes – Zsófia Szilágyi’s ‘Egy nap’ (‘One Day’)
Zsófia Szilágyi’s debut film One Day (Egy nap) is a study in the purgatory of motherhood and is riddled with…
Baroque Pleasures and Queer Transformations in Evangelia Kranioti’s ‘Obscuro Barroco’
Obscuro Barroco (2018) is shot through with the baroque. Textures of fabric and flesh, caught in movement, guide the essay…