Film
Spoiler Alert is arranged to make the viewer feel snug, like a cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter day.
Some might consider Close to be a depressing film, but its impressive understanding of human frailty and the power of forgiveness is revelatory.
Rather than coming across as angry or urgent, Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s No Bears feels muted, perhaps even subdued to the point of depression.
One Fine Morning lives up to its sunny title, even if it’s a bit less optimistic than you might expect.
Beyond Utopia is a grim reminder that, against growing odds, people keep leaving North Korea, or try to. It may be a while before another family agrees to film the journey out.
My second crop of Sundance screenings features three films that are all about women who, on some level, retreat from certain aspects of their lives: their pasts, their trauma, their public persona.
Kim’s Video is quixotic in a nutty way — in an old Indie style — that is more refreshing than it is nostalgic.
In Infinity Pool, people who are dead inside essentially play with their own corpses as shiny, new toys. The savagery of that idea is, simply, delicious.
Flipping a Coin: The Significance of Anna May Wong’s Quarter
What emerges from even a cursory study of Anna May Wong’s life is that her complexity and depth were rarely acknowledged but she used her intelligence to control the narrative as much as she could.
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