Allow me to posit a cinephilic contention: that cinema is perhaps the most formally complete of all art forms — or rather, a blistering confection…
In 2021, the Tolkien barrel was finally empty — it was less than empty. Christopher Tolkien, hitherto guardian of his father’s legacy, had died the…
I observe a Dry January most years. Usually, I drink to a moderate level, and prefer alcohol as a sedative rather than as a party…
A commonly held belief about Chinese documentary cinema is that, prior to the 1990s and the “New Documentary Movement,” the work of their filmmakers consisted…
“His parents were already in bed and asleep, the clock on the wall struck its uniform beat, the wind whistled by the rattling windows; the…
By way of disclaimer, some years back I collaborated with one of the lead organizers of Spectacle Theater’s STRUCTURE. WAVE. YOUTH. CINEMA. (SWYC) series (and…
Koki, Ciao, the award-winning Dutch experimental short film, is dictated by an unusual protagonist with a storied life, known for charming the likes of Sophia…
It is not a steady wind that brings Nietzsche to the criticism of Magnificent Obsession, a film whose slavish self-sacrifice would doubtless atomize the long-dead…
“Living out of a suitcase” and splitting her time between New York and Madrid, Isabel Sandoval arrived in Manila in early February. She returned to…
In some respects, the “officially sanctioned” of the SWYC Collective’s productions — it was scheduled for broadcast in China, before it was pulled by its…
When a long-suppressed work of art finally surfaces, it generates unexpected conceptual ripples. We understand that the work was made in a particular time and…
Frédéric Da wants to make it known that his new social drama, isaiah’s phone, is a work of complete fiction. This despite the film’s unsettling…
While easy to forget given its catastrophic success, fascism came into the world a mess. The writer and public intellectual Umberto Eco wrote in a…
Released in 1978 in what was then Czechoslovakia, Beauty and the Beast by director Juraj Herz follows a young woman who, to save her father,…
Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3 begins with two bodies in motion and ends with a woman trying to remember how to still herself. Somewhere between…
“And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said…
The concept of being a flop, a loser, a dud, an empty promise, and a failure in 2026. The new year is already growing old,…
After A New Love in Tokyo, Banmei Takahashi turned beyond the mortal realm. Japan was fine. His films — whether through home video as V-Cinema or…
Content warning: this piece mentions Imperial Japan’s sexual violence. In Yasuzo Masumura’s Black Test Car (1962), the director revisits ideas from his earlier Giants and…
In those chilly days of the Romantic poet, Samuel Coleridge sought to distinguish two synonyms. What is imagination, and what is fancy? He had this…
After a long career as an actress, Marijana Janković stepped behind the camera to tell the story on her own terms. Her debut feature Home,…