As a filmmaker, journalist, and film programmer, I attend festivals all the time. Sometimes one of my films is playing; sometimes I’m there to review films. The most recent festival…
Donuts and secrets are on the menu this Christmas Eve in Hollywood. In its initial synopsis, Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015) comes across a touch experimental and niche, “A working girl…
Even into the 21st Century the people of France continue their disdain for their last Queen, Marie Antoinette, more colloquially known as Madame Déficit. When Sofia Coppola’s contemporary rendering of…
Without affirmative calm or resolution, The Sweet Hereafter (1997) departs much in the same way as it arrives. Adapted from a book and based on true events, this multi-layered account…
There hasn’t been a time I was less at home in my own body than when I was a teenager. Breasts sprouted, full of possibility that would never be realized.…
In 1992, a twelve year old boy rented a movie from his local Blockbuster which featured a blonde cheerleader who also happened to be a vampire slayer. I had fantastic…
Brazenly setting the tone, the film opens with the words of Alfred de Musset, Romantic poet, writer and lover of Georges Sand, “The only truth is love beyond reason.” Indeed,…
“Vengeance is her only reason for living…” An asura, in Buddhist mythology, is described as a vengeful demigod that can never know true happiness – their desires and longings…
Photo via comingsoon.net. As a young girl, I watched fairytale “happily ever after” endings, and I wondered why none of the princesses fell in love with another princess. I wanted to…
In the pantheon of modern superhero films, of which there are now so many, Logan stands shoulder to shoulder with Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight. Much like Spider-Man 2…
At their best, monsters are metaphors for ideas, or cultural phenomena, in real life that scare us, from the most basic ‘Other’/foreigner to, say, sex/desire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Zombies…
(2. Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1973) Written and Directed by Chantal Akerman) Je, Tu, Il, Elle hit me instantly. Jeanne Dielman, I still cherish. But on my…
This post contains major spoilers for the film Arrival. Please don’t read if you plan to see the movie. I hadn’t planned on watching Arrival, but recently Shaun King…
In 2014, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Sondra Sun-Odeon, and Charlie Rauh staged a multidisciplinary performance at The St. Marks Poetry Project in New York City. Using Wagner’s long poem, “Rewilding,” as…