Category: Reviews

Point of Endless Return | The Villainess (2017) Review

March 24, 2020

You ever go on a date with someone fun and you’re, like, a 95% match, but then they say something that grinds the conversation to a halt, and it throws the integrity of the match into question and also possibly the premise of matchmaking itself, that there are no true matches, only fish in an endless sea broiling with riptide and Bermuda Triangles? Well, I didn’t actually go on a date with director Jung Byung-gil, but him and I are that 95% match, and his 2017 film The Villainess is my Bermuda Triangle. It is a siren’s song; it is my doom. … More Point of Endless Return | The Villainess (2017) Review

Motherhood with a Knife | Furie (2019) Review

February 9, 2020

Furie was a mega-hit in Vietnam and became a crossover success; I watched it on Netflix. It’s tempting to ascribe a Thailand/Indonesia breakout narrative here, as the film’s aesthetics recall Ong-Bak Muay: Thai Warrior and Merantau, and the passion behind its making suggests national pride. It broke box office records across the country and provided Vietnam its Oscar submission for 2019. However, this is not an actual debut. The cinema of Vietnam is older and more storied than I realized, and that lack of awareness is partly why I hope Furie indicates the path forward. Gorgeous and confident, graced by moody color and a free-flowing camera, there’s no mistaking it for the unrefined opening statement of a burgeoning industry, as in Ong-Bak and Merantau, but without those rough edges, it comes up short on character. … More Motherhood with a Knife | Furie (2019) Review

A Note on Star Ratings

February 9, 2020

I decided to go with star ratings for this third or fourth movie blog of mine, after a lifetime of deriving mild joy from them but insisting they’re the death of media criticism. Or at least, silently agreeing as media critics insisted so. I’m swiping the awkward four star system from Roger Ebert, yes, but also from the TV Guide magazine of my youth. One summer, ABC was airing its summer of James Bond, and I went next-door to my best bud’s house and watched The Man with the Golden Gun with his family. To date, my favorite 007. I discovered the TV Guide in a heap of the Sunday paper and went looking for the next airing, which was supposed to be Diamonds are Forever, but something was substituted out. I guess the lesson should’ve been, “Trust don’t the TV Guide,” but I was too fascinated by its shorthand for evaluation. It was only in comparing their giving Robocop a 3/4 and The Matrix a 3.5/4 that I could begin to decipher the language and understand the critic behind the printed ink. … More A Note on Star Ratings