The Searchers was billed to me by my film professor as “haunted”, so I went into the film with that keyword in mind. Indeed, I think “haunted” is one of the most apt words to describe the history of the American West — the era of cowboys, Manifest Destiny, and rugged homesteading has indelibly become conflated with the image of America itself. Yet students of history understand that the American West is unimaginably dark — one of the most rewritten…
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The Piano Teacher 2001
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I think it's going to take me a bit to properly organize my thoughts around this film but a few off the cuff thoughts for now. First of all, I've always thought classical piano and classical music is a perfect vehicle for storytelling - there's such an intimacy and tension innate to piano playing and I think that film captures the intensity of that so well. The film also portrays power dynamics under patriarchy and the desire for vs. reality…
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Anora 2024
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
This wasn't for me I fear. Let me start by saying it certainly has its moments - the second act that so deftly captures the frenetic energy of an all nighter in the city, the touches of comedy, the characters that are simultaneously over the top yet also humanistic (and realistic too - that desperate damage control, bouncing from anger to a veneer of calm, from Toros made me, a perfectionist with self-admitted anger issues, wince in sympathy), and those…
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Dìdi (弟弟) 2024
So so tender and bittersweet to the point of pain...this film hit a very personal spot for me, not surprising considering I was also once an awkward Taiwanese American teen who had issues with my parents (lol). Sean Wang's created something really special here - sure, there's the familiar Asian American immigrant parent and coming-of-age stories, but there's a real and authentic sense of time and place here with the early Internet, the flip phones, and that scrappy energy of…
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