Emma Ward

Emma Ward Pro

essays & articles at bright wall/dark room, reverse shot, etc.

Favorite films

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • All the President's Men
  • Children of Men
  • Psycho

Recent activity

All
  • Decalogue IX

  • Mickey 17

  • Decalogue VIII

  • Decalogue VII

Recent reviews

More
  • Dahomey

    Dahomey

    At the National Gallery of Art with Statues Also Die

  • Statues Also Die

    Statues Also Die

    At the National Gallery of Art with Dahomey

Popular reviews

More
  • The Zone of Interest

    The Zone of Interest

    still sorting out how I feel about this, which in this case may be a good sign — i tend to think Holocaust films should err on the side of making their audience conflicted/uncomfortable, rather than providing a weird Schindler’s List-esque emotional catharsis as so many do.

    what Glazer & co. are doing here formally really works. there are a million conversations to be had about the technical side of filmmaking-as-historiography, particularly visually (film vs. digital, color grading, shot variety & pace…

  • Challengers

    Challengers

    really struggling to pinpoint what about this didn’t work for me as a whole, especially because there are many individual elements that did work (or that at least felt intentional/creative/risky in a thought provoking, engaging way).

    I think my main issue with Challengers is that its emotional threads—its relationships, tension, sexiness, obsession—feel largely performed or asserted rather than authentically developed or crafted through the film’s performances or form.

    it’s in the script’s approach to characterisation & exposition, particularly in the opening…