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Challengers Review: Zendaya Scores in Romantic Sports Drama

Photo by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures – © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved. The complex, underlying emotions that drive interpersonal relationships are often brilliantly translated onto screen through visual means. That’s certainly the case for Academy Award-nominated Italian director Luca Guadagnino‘s latest movie, Challengers. The filmmaker has long made a name for himself in…

‘Slow’ by Marija Kavtaradzė Explores the Choreography of Desire

©Courtesy of Kimstim Films Slow is certainly an apt title for this charming little romcom about a dance instructor and a sign-language interpreter she employs while teaching a class of hearing-impaired teenagers. There is nothing forced or hurried about their relationship, which blossoms naturally as the two explore the limits and horizons of their own…

City Hunter / Review : It’s All Very Slick, But Still Faithful to the Fans

Ryohei Suzuki, Fumino Kimura, ©Courtesy of Netflix  Like all long-running manga-anime series, the “City Hunter” franchise has a complicated history of adaptations. Technically, this is the first live-action Japanese film based on Tsukasa Hojo’s Shonen series, but previous non-animated film adaptions were produced in Hong Kong (starring Jackie Chan and Gary Daniels) and France (as…

The Hazy Days of Art College 1994

©Courtesy of Dekanalog Like many young people, the Chinese art students in this film largely ignore politics. Very few of them could have conscious memories of the Cultural Revolution, unlike superstar Chinese artists Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Wang Guangyi. However, these artists-in-training consciously aspire to their level of success. They also hope to make…

‘Abigail’: Beware of That Bloody Ballerina!

©Courtesy of Universal Pictures Welcome back, bloodsucking fiend! It is always a (guilty) pleasure to return to a vampire movie where the undead is an old-fashioned, terrifying thirsty killer. Even if the dark humor behind the whole production makes Abigail some kind of horror comedy, nonetheless the main character – a young ballerina who plays…

‘An American Bombing’ Explores the Mainstreaming of Political Extremism

An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th is a sober and joyless documentary about the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, whose 29th anniversary was marked this week. Directed by Emmy-winning Mark Levin and executive-produced by TV journalist Katie Couric, An American Bombing deftly combines archival footage (including home movies and…

One with the Whale, on PBS’s Independent Lens

©Courtesy of ITVS St. Lawrence Island is part of Alaska, but geographically, it is located closer to Russia. Many of the indigenous Yupik people have adopted Christianity and an American identity, but they still retain their traditional customs. By necessity, that also includes diet, notably including whale meat. Without successful whale hunts, the entire Yupik…

Spy x Family Code: White / Review

© 2023 Crunchyroll LLC You could compare the anime Forger family to “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”—the Doug Liman movie more than the neurotic Donald Glover series. Loid Forger, a.k.a. Westalian secret agent “Twilight,” recruited Yor Briar to act as his pretend wife for a long-term mission. Just as she believes Twilight is a psychiatrist, he remains…

‘Civil War’: When a Strong Idea Remains On the Page…

In his previous three movies as a director, Alex Garland has demonstrated the courage to bring the genre he picked almost to its extreme consequences, delivering stunning, contemporary nightmares capable of insinuating under the viewer’s skin. Ex Machina, Annihilation, and particularly Men were developed through solid stories, complex characters, and the vision of a cinematic…

Julio Quintana’s ‘The Long Game’ Celebrates the American Dream via Golf

Directed by Julio Quintana and based on the novel Mustang Miracle by Humberto G. Garcia, The Long Game is a heartwarming tale of how five Mexican-American high-schoolers overcome bigotry and stereotyping to form an award-winning championship golf team with the help of a coach who refuses to give up on them. It is also a…

Searching Through the Wasteland of Fallout

Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV series didn’t have to wait for the success of HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us to get the green light. The adaptation of the Bethesda entries of the popular game series was already filming around the same time the Naughty Dog adaptation was wrapping. It isn’t necessary for one production…