A Captivating World of Indigenous Culture: Filmmaker Ivan Sen on Limbo

By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. There’s a lot of secrets to all the land in Australia, especially since colonization…. And sometimes the land gives those secrets up if you listen to it. And so this incredible landscape was the inspiration for the characters who are very similar to this damaged […]

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Queer-Themed Monster

By Brad Windhauser. Kore-eda’s Monster portrays Japanese queer youth forced to carve out a safe space away from their society just to experience moments of joy.” Kore-eda’s film Monster (Kore-eda, 2023), recently released digitally, demonstrates how Japanese culture, which does not encourage open exploration of queer identities, sets up their […]

Tangled Up In Blue: Patrick Tam’s My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989)

By Thomas M. Puhr. Violent, sensual, and at times poetic….” Kani Releasing continues to expose Western audiences to unsung masterpieces of Asian cinema, and their latest – a restoration of Patrick Tam’s violent, sensual, and at times poetic My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sat sau woo dip mung, 1989) […]

Young at Heart: Julio Torres’ Problemista

By Jonathan Monovich. Writer-director-star Julio Torres cleverly compares the one-month countdown for finding work visa sponsorship to both an hour glass running out of sand and a never-ending maze…. Problemista‘s tone possesses a childlike innocence, which works quite well in contrasting serious subject matter.” Slinkys that refuse to fall down […]

Mad Props – For the Movie Collector Nerds Amongst Us

By Elias Savada. Humankind’s appetite for many things nostalgic is at play here, and it is a satisfying meal.” Most folks who do genealogy, like myself, cherish old photos of their great-great grandparents, a family bible with birth, death, and marriage records handwritten in the back, or assorted documents and […]

Always an Outsider – Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood’s Zen Rebel

A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. I’ve always felt like an outsider….” –Harry Dean Stanton One of my abiding movie memories comes from the 1984 Edinburgh International Film Festival. I got to watch a late night showing of the full, uncut, 229 minute version of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a […]

Dune: Part Two – The Myth Continues, Big and Loud

By Elias Savada. Dune: Part Two succeeds on its many storyline levels, big and small. Passion, power, corruption, oppression, romance, intimacy, and revenge all get their time in this sweeping spectacle.” Okay, it’s been awhile since Dune (well, only a few hours in elapsed cinematic time), but the wait is […]