Beauty standards are a palpable topic for exploring, particularly when they're about women in image-obsessed Hollywood. This is the setting for Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, a satirical and grotesque body horror that serves up its own version of warped feminism. The film focuses on Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an ageing TV fitness instructor who was revered… Continue reading Film Review | The Substance
Film Review | Tokyo-Ga
Tokyo-Ga is at once a travel diary and an ode by one filmmaker to another. In it, Wim Wenders travels to Tokyo to see first-hand the home and film subject of one of his most beloved and revered film directors, the late Yasujirō Ozu. Wenders indulges his curiosity by visiting Pachinko parlours, a pinball-like game… Continue reading Film Review | Tokyo-Ga
Film Review | Shadows in Paradise
Social realism by way of eighties Helsinki; Shadows in Paradise is early, yet masterful Aki Kaurismäki. The film follows Nikander, a garbage collector, as he goes about his day-to-day life, which is as dull as you might expect. He works in a two-man team (under his superior), traveling the city and taking in the trash. By night,… Continue reading Film Review | Shadows in Paradise
Film Review | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974]
What a title; and yes, literally, the title, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It's phonetically satisfying to read, and as a title of a motion picture, implies terror, gore, and revulsion. And The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has the three in droves. It's a film that suggests it's based on true events, something that was later revealed to… Continue reading Film Review | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974]
Film Review | Vampire’s Kiss
Vampire's Kiss is the ultimate Nicolas Cage film, and a bizarre, surreal and hilarious horror-comedy. It's a film about a yuppie; Peter Loew (Cage) in late eighties New York City, single and rich, and mentally unhinged. His time is divided between working as an executive in his literary agency, nights on the town, and trips to… Continue reading Film Review | Vampire’s Kiss
Film Review | 그녀가 죽었다 (Following)
집에서 빈둥거리던 중에 우연히 영화 예고편을 보게 되었다. 예고편을 통해서는 영화가 무슨 내용인지 추측하기가 너무 어려웠지만, 궁금증을 유발시키기는 성공한 듯했다. 바로 영화관으로 달려갔으니 말이다. "나쁜 짓은 절대 안 해요. 그냥 보기만 하는 거예요." 나의 호기심을 자극했던 대사는 이거였다. 염탐하는 남자의 이야기일까?정신병이 있는 사람일까?아니면 그냥 평범한 남자와 이상한 여자의 이야기일까? <Story> 집을 파는 공인중개사 '구정태' 집을… Continue reading Film Review | 그녀가 죽었다 (Following)
Limited Series Review | My Demon
My Demon is quintessential k-drama; it's glossy, sweet, feel-good, and switches the dial from comedy to drama on a whim. The 16-part, 18~ hour epic follows the lives of Do Do-Hee (Kim Yoo-Jung), a highly successful CEO of a food and beverage company, and Jeong Gu-won (Song Kang), a demon, or Satan himself as the series… Continue reading Limited Series Review | My Demon
Film Review | Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan as you'd expect. Big, boisterous, and loud; and in terms of scale, you can't get much grander than the atomic bomb. In that sense, Oppenheimer is Nolan to the nth degree. He's always been about creating larger-than-life cinema, even to the detriment of logic in his screenplays. This film follows the formula and then some.… Continue reading Film Review | Oppenheimer
Film Review | La Haine
La Haine is a bold and fierce film about social and racial injustice in nineties Paris. Released in 1995, it was celebrated on release and has rightfully gone on to be lauded as a modern classic. The film follows three friends from different ethnic backgrounds - Jewish, African, and Arabic - in a Parisian banlieue, the day after… Continue reading Film Review | La Haine
Film Review | Monkey Man
Dev Patel's directorial debut, Monkey Man, is a brutal, bloody and unrelenting revenge thriller from the streets of India. The film follows our protagonist, played by Patel and unnamed other than in the film's title, who takes part in violent and seedy underground fights for cash. He is representative of India's underclass, with a willingness to… Continue reading Film Review | Monkey Man









