At one point in Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa, a girl mentions that women whose names started with the letter M tended to be malicious in character. She listed Mary Magdalene and Messalina as the prime examples, two women who were…
We Are Little Zombies: An emotional film about emotionless children
Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is an emotionally invigorating film about four profoundly emotionless children. Hikari, Takemura, Ishi, and Ikuko meet at a crematorium during their parents’ funeral. They find solace because neither of them can cry despite becoming orphans. Their…
Ramen Shop Movie Review: Gather ’round the table for a tasty tale of food and family
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so too is the way to a movie-lover’s. In Ramen Shop (Ramen Teh) — the beautiful and brothy, Singaporean-Japanese-French film from director Eric Khoo, the visionary who revived Singaporean…
Summer 1993 Movie Review: An Affecting Drama That Establishes the Fraught Emotions of Childhood
Childhood is a time of wonderment, hope, of dreams waiting to be fulfilled. But when we really look back on our childhoods we know this is a fantasy and that growing up often involves sadness, pain, and questions we’re told…
Ava Movie Review: An Empowering Entry to the Coming of Age Genre
“Your mind is already polluted,” says Ms. Dehkhoda, the school principal, to a class of young Iranian girls. All they can do is nod while being punished for a crime they didn’t even commit: having sex. Using a horror story…
Tehran Taboo Movie Review
Tehran Taboo opens with a man picking up a prostitute, Pari (Elmira Rafizadeh), and her son, Elias, in his car. While Pari is giving her client a blowjob (with Elias in the backseat), he crashes his car into the vehicle…
Ranking the films of master director Guillermo Del Toro
Many words have been tossed around to describe Guillermo Del Toro’s work such as “creepy” or “bizarre”, but we prefer “visionary.” He’s established himself as a master of horror just by doing what he loves best: dabbling in the macabre.…