Whiplash is a great film. From its technical execution to the emotions that it pulls us through. It won the Oscar for best film editing and the film brought in two other Oscar wins, with a total of five nominations. It is a hair-raising, stomach turning, knee-weakening sprint to the finish line. The movie is finely tuned from its yellow (sickly) lighting to its brutal recognition of what the monsters of the arts look like behind closed doors. Because this…

Talking about Citizen Kane as a novice reviewer, feels a bit like having a child read Shakespeare to a bunch of adults at a birthday party. Dubbed by many as the “greatest film of all time”, recognized as a cornerstone of film by others, influential to so many films that we don’t even think “Citizen Kane” when we see a tribute to it; it has becoming something much bigger than a movie. The boy genius of RKO was given an…

*Contains minor spoilers for Volume I and Volume II.*

A clarification needs to be made about this film review, as it is two volumes and has multiple chapters. I am going to be speaking primarily to my thoughts on the first volume (and the directors extended cut of it). However, in my opinion, they cannot and should not be separated. Imagine only ever watching the first volume of Kill Bill. Would you comprehend the first volume to its true potential?…

I really enjoyed High and Low. Kurosawa has the wonderful ability to tell us so much about a scene, without dialogue being necessary. It’s hard to say how well-utilized mise en scène is in a film, since this is my first time reviewing a film with that in mind. However, it’s difficult for me to imagine that Kurosawa’s High and Low, isn’t a perfect example of spacing and framing. You could take almost any shot from this film and hang…