Mike Cheslik’s “Hundreds of Beavers” comes riding with an abundance of praise, hailing it as one of the best comedies in years. My expectations had been cranked up as high as they get, which arguably may have affected my viewing experience in deeper ways than I can admit. A great comedy relies on a subsistence of gags that hurl themselves huge and softly at the viewer yet don’t feel too pronounced and heavy in the path of its direction. A…
-
-
Helen and the Bear 2024
How does one depict a love story bumbling with contradictions? When the two have already gone through several clashes over the respective individual construction of the self within the marriage, does it invest the relationship with newfound strength and vitality, or does it focalize its limitations further? If one cannot escape the intense love for the other despite finding the relationship too overbearing, how do they keep going? At what point do they make the decision of sticking through and once made, how do they assess the space they have within the relationship?
-
Not Today 2021
There is something elusively compelling about the movies that make dialogue dramatically engaging throughout the runtime. Despite their shoestring budget, some films envelop you with raw and unadulterated emotions with pure use of dialogue and a minimalist setting. Usually, I judge movies based on three distinct parameters: art, influence, and entertainment. However, there are some films that, despite being devoid of entertainment, offer you so much to chew on emotionally that you feel for them instantly, and “Not Today” is one such film.
-
The Teachers’ Lounge 2023
The best films are those that don’t fully reveal themselves initially. Rather, they slowly and meticulously hook themselves onto your mind and don’t let go for days or weeks. Ilker Çatak’s 2023 German-language film “The Teacher’s Lounge,” deservedly nominated for best international feature at the Oscars, is a perfect example. Much like other films of a similar vein, “Uncut Gems” or “The Hunt,” to name just a couple, tension seeps out of every moment when watching, but it is the…
-
It's all In your Head 2023
In many ways, a half-decent critic’s job is antithetical to a half-decent filmmaker’s. The former has to – concisely, directly, and definitively – extract the essential meaning from a filmic text usually overflowing with meaning; they have to “explain” something that, in the best-case scenario, will always remain thrillingly unexplainable. But when filmmakers themselves resort to summarizing, clarifying, and, worst of all, sermonizing, there’s little left for the critic (or any enthusiastic audience member) to do.
-
Yolo 2024
Do you want to win, even if only for once? Yes. Of course. This is such an obvious question, even a commercial one—the slogan of a boxing gym flier. Winning, which implies having beaten someone, is the tacit knowledge of having been better at something—a feeling that everyone appreciates—or almost everyone. There are also those who have never won anything. For example, there is Le Ying; she indeed has never won anything. Le Ying (played by Jia Ling, actress and director) is the protagonist of the Chinese super hit “YOLO,” which premiered in theaters in February 2024.
-
Nowhere Special 2020
Uberto Pasolini’s “Nowhere Special” has a premise that can immediately wring your sentiments. John (James Norton), 34, is perhaps the loveliest father imaginable and his kid, Michael (Daniel Lamont) an exceptionally polite boy. John is a single parent. He is a window cleaner who regards himself as absolutely useless. His self-esteem is always low. When he scrubs the windows of a house, we watch him eagerly peer into the room of a young boy. He keeps returning in anticipation of…
-
Hellraiser 1987
Adapted from Clive Barker’s 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, the iconic British horror film “Hellraiser” (1987), directed by Mr. Barker himself, cracks open the gates of Hell for cinephiles. Barker’s exploration of the extremes of sadomasochism has spawned eleven screen adaptations thus far, with rumors circulating about the development of a TV adaptation with HBO Max. Despite numerous attempts within the franchise, none of the films have managed to eclipse the monumental success achieved by the original “Hellraiser,” whose triumph is also vividly mirrored in its box office performance, reaching a lifetime gross of more than $14 million.
-
Brunaupark 2024
Where do you go once you are suddenly confronted with the sudden, brutal threat of standing to lose your home? This is the question that haunts those that Felix Hergert and Dominik Zietlow’s “Brunaupark” bring to the fore. It’s a question inhabitants of the eponymous district in Zurich had never imagined they’d have to factor in. However, residents of the tenements don’t take the eviction threats without doling out a firm, vocal, and proactive opposition. What’s immediately focalized is the…
-
A Journey in Spring 2023
One of the most heart-numbing films on grief and death would be Michael Haneke’s “Amour” (2012). “Amour” remains firmly entrenched on my list of evergreen films, and I recall watching it without spoilers. The outstanding portrayal of an older woman with dementia by the late Emmanuelle Riva and the breadth of emotion displayed by the late Jean-Louis Trintignant was priceless. With modest inspiration from “Amour” and featuring an Asian twist, filmmakers Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang craft a tale in…
-
Billy 2024
Behold the life of a man in torment. Billy Poulin has been filming his thoughts for 20 years, and without knowing it, he recorded the chronicles of a schizophrenic in the most detailed way possible. His material is the backbone of the documentary, technically directed by Lawrence Cote-Collins, a Canadian filmmaker with a keen and empathetic eye on contemporary emotional destruction. Billy apparently has a natural way of telling stories and an original passion for deploying props (wigs, puppets, and…
-
Humane 2024
As far as filmmaking dynasties go, the Cronenbergs aren’t exactly the Canadian Coppolas, but that isn’t to say that the Father of Body Horror hasn’t also fathered some accomplished artists to carve out their own legacies. Brandon Cronenberg has already proven himself a worthy successor to occupy his old man’s specific lane of high-concept, low-scale gruesomeness, while his daughter Caitlin has solidified a strong career in photography. Alas, the call of the moving image was simply too irresistible, and so…