Engagement with Yasujirō Ozu’s work often prompts descriptors like “restrained,” “artisanal,” or even “conservative,” and appraisals of his films regularly point to their stubborn…
Trapped in their luxurious mansion, a previously well-to-do family in the Philippines suffers through the tail-end of World War II, constantly being harassed by…
Following the success and acclaim of his reality-bending 1997 directorial debut Perfect Blue — a feverish take on the Giallo genre, filtered through a…
At first glance, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence seems to exist in opposition to its creator’s body of work. Directed and co-written by Nagisa Ôshima,…
Genre filmmaking is in a weird place currently, and has been for a while now. Self-referentiality, endless didacticism, and an absence of any sense…
When talking about Mouchette, his acclaimed 1967 drama, Robert Bresson said that the put-upon titular character “offers evidence of misery and cruelty. She is…
It might seem strange that Hideaki Anno’s name would come to be associated with nostalgic childhood properties, given how much of his work has…
Grief, guilt, and superstition slowly wreak havoc on the mind of a recent father, as he grapples with the death of a former lover.…
Disclaimer: It’s important to acknowledge the severity of the accusations of abuse made against both Shia LaBeouf and Asia Argento, and clarify that while…
Anyone with a taste for Squid Pisser’s brand of whacked-out noise punk will likely be reminded of the Locust’s Infest-by-way-of-the-B-52’s genre concoction. And while…
Seijun Suzuki made his name with a string of Nikkatsu-produced genre flicks — The Naked Woman and the Gun (1957), Voice Without a Shadow…
Little Richard, born Richard Wayne Penniman, is a complicated figure in rock ‘n’ roll history not just because of the way his legacy as…
On her debut album With a Hammer, Korean-American singer, DJ, and producer Kathy Yaeji Lee, a.k.a. Yaeji, works through an intricate web of emotions…
Since his breakout 1997 film Xiao Wu, Jia Zhangke has emerged as one of the most gifted artists chronicling life in 21st-century China. Three…
Alternative music was serious business in the 1980s and ’90s. Fed up with not just stale, bombastic radio rock but hardcore punk’s stylistic blinders,…
On debut LP Follow the Cyborg, Margaret Sohn (AKA Miss Grit) explores the figure of the cyborg as a vision for liberation. As a…
Naomi Kawase’s 2014 romance drama Still the Water is never short on striking imagery. Set in Amami Ôshima, an island off the southern coast…
Meghan Remy, mastermind behind the experimental pop project U.S. Girls, has been on a trajectory of constant evolution since she began releasing music under…