Lucky Chan-sil is a delicate, deeply humanist film superbly anchored by Kang’s lead performance. “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,” the saying goes. Tell that to Lee Chan-sil, the protagonist of Kim Cho-hee’s debut film, Lucky Chan-Sil.…
The Rescue is a moving work a immersion and stitch-work, crafting an empathetic documentary from its headline-grabbing story. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have a knack for humanizing the most extreme situations and conditions on Earth. 2015’s Meru documented Chin’s attempt to climb the…
The Alpinist suffers a bit thanks due to a lack of access and more substantive commentary, but the frequent breathtaking feats captured are memorable enough to keep things lively. Just as rock climbing has moved from fringe activity to Olympic sport, the climbing documentary…
Given our TikTok-conditioned attention spans, it’s not hard to imagine a future where movies are eventually whittled down to a mere 5 seconds, with minute-long blockbusters considered a landmark achievement. In Soushi Matsumoto’s It’s a Summer Film!, the petite, tomboyish Barefoot (singer and former…
“We get it — you’re different!” That’s what I’d say to Enid (Thora Birch), adopting the same cynical, ironic tone she applies to everything in her immediate vicinity, if I saw her clomping down the street in her combat boots or sniping at the…
Tsai’s latest, like the director’s best works, revels in the unexpected, sublime textures of daily routine and understated tenderness. Those familiar with Tawainese auteur Tsai Ming-liang will know what to expect from his latest feature, Days, which won the Teddy Award at the 2020 Berlinale. With his…
Ride the Eagle is a slight, breezy affair that succeeds on the strength of its comedic charm and slick pacing. If you had another chance with the one who got away, how would you do it differently? That’s the question Leif, a struggling musician, dog…
In Hong Kong’s tropical humidity, where sweltering bodies cram around mahjong tables or hunch over noodle stands, how can two people in a forbidden romance possibly cope? For Shanghainese émigrés and next-door neighbors Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung, in a role that won him Best…
The Neutral Ground succeeds as both zippy, deadpan commentary and a moving personal document. With Juneteenth a newly-minted federal holiday, it’s a fitting opportunity to revisit a particularly fascinating moment in our country’s ongoing reckoning with its white supremist past: the battle over four…
How do you get away with the perfect murder? Easy: get someone else to do it for you. Such is the premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 thriller Strangers on a Train, a taut, Dostoyevskyian exploration of moral ambiguity. Based on a novel by Patricia…
