And to think that this was supposed to be an easy review. From its trailers Simon Curtis’ The Art of Racing in the Rain looked to be your standard, treacly magic dog movie. A race car flavored compani…
Kings of Beer Movie Review: A fizzy, low-calorie look at competitive budweiser brewing
Over the years I’ve heard many, many jokes about Budweiser beer. Some of them aren’t exactly appropriate for general audiences—my favorite involving, shall we say, canoe-based copulation—but one of th…
Quentin Tarantino Comes Home in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
It’s been almost 30 years since Quentin Tarantino first hit the indie scene like a neutron bomb with his debut feature Reservoir Dogs (1992) and since then he’s made many names for himself. To some he…
New York Asian Film Festival 2019: A Main Slate Retrospective
With the coming of mid-July comes the ending of the New York Asian Film Festival. Now in its 18th year, this annual collection of films remains one of the only places in New York City where audiences …
NYAFF Review: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Show is an Unapologetic Love Letter to “Insane” Asian Television
Since the dawn of Peak TV, television has had perhaps the most cultural sway and power in Western society since its postwar nascence in the late 40s and early 50s. American prestige epics and comedies…
Phil Movie Review: An inoffensive but unfunny take on a heavy subject
One must tread carefully with suicide; it’s a subject that demands delicacy and nuance. When handled sloppily it can tear open old wounds from those who’ve lost loved ones that way. Or, even worse, it…
NYAFF Opening Night Review: Samurai Marathon races towards confusion
The New York Asian Film Festival returns for its eighteenth year, kicking off its annual celebration of some of the strangest, weirdest, and most eclectic filmmaking throughout Asia. The opening night…