The pilot of Rahul Nath’s Monster opens with a three-minute-long take, languidly establishing the character of one of its antagonists. There are two. And there is a good cop. Its opening scene begins after the unnamed man (Manoj Mathew) has already killed his latest victim, which as we see from his souvenirs, is the third… Continue reading Monster: Facing Two Monsters At Once
Category: Reviews
Facades: An Experimental Short Dissecting Relationships
Writer-Director Gregory Alexander Foltynowicz’s Facades is a 9:50-minutes long analysis of one’s self. Done vicariously through the bonding of its protagonists, the process to self-discovery is shown as an almost otherworldly experience. The first thing one notices in Facades is its use of the natural elements (space, water and air). The very starting scene with… Continue reading Facades: An Experimental Short Dissecting Relationships
After The Sea: Processing Loss With Love
The first thing that strikes you about After The Sea are it’s candy hues. What you notice next is that they are in bleak cool tones, an effective representation of director Tom Leatherbarrow’s vision with the film: that, grief bleaches the happiness out of the best things. And then, when with time, warm tones shine through,… Continue reading After The Sea: Processing Loss With Love
Thoughts and Prayers: The Uselessness Of Performative Empathy
Christopher Logan’s Thoughts and Prayers critiques the performative empathy that floods social media during and after crises, especially by the ones in power, to make up for and cover up a lack of concrete action. Logan does this by centering his film on an individual level. Instead of lawmakers, leaders, and celebrities, the focus is… Continue reading Thoughts and Prayers: The Uselessness Of Performative Empathy
For the Benefit of Mr. Winston: Seeing People Anew
For the Benefit of Mr. Winston explores the artist’s block and inspiration through the metaphor of an imagined muse. The eponymous Mr. Winston, a songwriter experiencing a bleak creative funk while keenly aware of the world and his friends watching him, chooses over and over to stick with the comfortable and the popular, until a… Continue reading For the Benefit of Mr. Winston: Seeing People Anew
His Hands: Perfecting Disquietude
The opening music of His Hands belies its dark complexity. What begins as energetic experiences a tonal shift into tense swirls of mystery. Writer-director duo Arron Blake and Darius Shu’s intentions with the film is, to speak broadly, to create tingling horror and morbid fascination. On first viewing, more than that can be hard to… Continue reading His Hands: Perfecting Disquietude
Windows To Nowhere: Observing Sorrow In Unsympathetic Characters
There is a steely coldness to Tamara Hansen’s Windows To Nowhere that fits its towering protagonist, a grieving mother who lost her daughter to accidental negligence. And yet, this same coldness keeps the viewer at a distance from the same protagonist in a way that proves it difficult to form any associations, warm or otherwise,… Continue reading Windows To Nowhere: Observing Sorrow In Unsympathetic Characters
Fear, Actually: Humorously Unhinged New World
Fear, Actually gets at the fears of particularly, but not limited to, Americans in the age of Trump. Triggered by the accidental leak of the nuclear codes, the US melts into a cornucopia of real-world fears, so much so that Pennywise and his ilk do not get much of a reaction anymore. Focused on Pennywise’s… Continue reading Fear, Actually: Humorously Unhinged New World
Shutter: A Whodunnit With An Easy Answer
The obsessions of Charley, Shutter’s anti-hero, is set forth in the opening moments of the film: beauty, perfection, flawlessness. A photographer, Charley’s obsessions might have come across as benign under different circumstances, but being questioned about the immediate disappearances of women after he has photographed them raises a few questions. Sitting in an interrogation room… Continue reading Shutter: A Whodunnit With An Easy Answer
Loneheart: An Origin Story Of The Homeless Man
Loneheart unfolds a tragic story, one without a conclusion. True to its silent central character, the film feels merely a glimpse into a tragic story before tiredly walking on, weighed down by the knowledge. Now homeless, Amelia’s father (Bruce Penton) was an attorney. He had a wife. He had a daughter. He used to stay… Continue reading Loneheart: An Origin Story Of The Homeless Man