Artificial Intelligence (AI) · Experimental & Underground
Director/author’s statement: My film Recorded as Stated by Me (V. Shashkov, 2024), released on Amazon Prime at the end of April 2025, is set in post-mobilization Russia and traces cultural[…]
African American · Asian · Drama · Essays
Both films will give the critic searching for a standard class-focused reading a headache. We have to admit that the kidnapper exerts an imposition on the success of “the other.”[…]
Activist & Political · Brazilian Cinema · Communism and Socialism · Drama · Politics
Retornarán los libros, las canciones que quemaron las manos asesinas. Renacerá mi pueblo de su ruina y pagarán su culpa los traidores. The books will return, the songs burned by[…]
Class System · Crime · Hollywood · Noir · Pre-Code
When the Production Code loosened and America lurched through assassinations, riots, and televised body bags, the gangster stopped functioning as a moral lesson and started reading as a symptom –[…]
Drama · Drugs · Melodrama · Men & Masculinity
Due to cortisone overdose, Ed turns into a radical enforcer of outdated values at school. His expectations, rather than aligning with the conventional disciplinary regime of the time, deviate into[…]
These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World, by Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali. Revised and expanded paperback edition, Running Press, 2025, 384 pages,[…]
Drama · Restorations · Satire
Who is this minx with the thirty-kilowatt smile? Christie is phenomenal here, creating an archetype of the modern neurotic. The extraordinary geometry of her face, depending on angle and lights,[…]
Activist & Political · Directors · Italian Cinema · LGBT & Queer
Pasolini is in the canon – but only as a statue, not a voice. His name appears in film textbooks, his films screen at retrospectives, and Salò gets trotted out[…]
Absurdism · Body Horror · Disease and Epidemics · Family · Horror · Politics
When taken as a whole, it’s apparent that Hooper was just as politically minded in the creation of this film as he was with the first, his sights set firmly[…]
Class System · Drama · Exile and Displacement · French Cinema · Road Movies · Women in Film
For the Dardenne brothers, “social conditions” come down to the common denominator of cold cash – having it, lacking it, getting it, some disposing of it more than others. It’s[…]
Drama · Essays · Feminism · French Cinema · Men & Masculinity · Sex & Relationships · Women in Film
Last Tango in Paris is a case study in how a culture processes shame – who bears it, who survives it, who escapes it entirely. Maria Schneider, long ignored, is[…]
In the screenplay for Past Lives, Song’s scene descriptions are acutely sensitive to the way in which identity lives in the distance between self and Other, between knowing and mystery.[…]
Books · Drama · Indies · Women in Film
Alexandra Seros, Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director’s Chair. Texas University Press, 2024. 227 pages. $45.00. * * * Most readers of this journal recognize Ida[…]
Censorship · Feminism · Gender · Iranian Cinema · Middle East · Muslims · Politics · Revolution · Women in Film
The woman without a hijab in her private space, something consistently denied visual existence, is no longer hidden or censored. Instead, her presence is centered and made ordinary. In this[…]
Drama · Interior Monologue · LGBT & Queer · Men & Masculinity
The song continues to play as the camera moves farther and farther away from the spooning lovers and higher and higher into the night sky that cradles them. Having proceeded[…]
Essays · LGBT & Queer · Politics · Romance · Russia
“The history of ideas is the history of the spite of certain solitaries.” – E. M. Cioran, All Gall Is Divided * * * It was at the 1934 First[…]
Directors · Drama · French Cinema · Nouvelle Vague
In an age of clickbait politics and algorithmic attention spans, there’s something quietly revolutionary about refusing to manufacture drama. Rohmer’s refusal to manipulate emotion – to cue violins or insert[…]
For anyone who was coming of age during the eighties, St. Elmo’s represented the height of hubris. It represented the height of yuppiedom and suburban sprawl. It represented the height[…]
One of the delights of running a film review website is being able to repost an article just because we feel like it. Admittedly, we have many to choose from[…]
Drama · Essays · Film Crews · Hollywood · News · Production · Production History · Stuntwork
Even if Rust is defined as professional by its crew, the danger that allows a crew member to die cannot coexist with the description of professional. If that is professional,[…]
