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A
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The Last of the Sea Women
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
The divers' lack of healthcare coverage strikes a particularly effective chord, as one of the documentary’s brightest subjects suffers a foot injury that takes her out of commission for a year.
Posted Sep 10, 2024
|
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B+
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I'll Be Right There
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
I'll Be Right There explores the experience of a queer woman over 60 years old—a group that’s practically invisible in mainstream movies.
Posted Aug 27, 2024
|
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B
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Twisters
(2024)
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Li Lai
|
Twisters delivers on the age-old Hollywood promise: Impressive CGI and American flag-wearing heroes, but slips into some unforced errors on diversity.
Posted Jul 19, 2024
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B+
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Janet Planet
(2023)
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Li Lai
|
Nothing exemplifies the female gaze more than the wary, ever-watchful undercurrent that pervades Janet Planet.
Posted Jul 01, 2024
|
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C+
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Tuesday
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
There’s nothing wrong with Tuesday’s main actor of color appearing as a bird rather than as a human, but it’s a creative decision that falls into a longer trend.
Posted Jun 21, 2024
|
|
C-
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Boy Kills World
(2023)
|
Gavin Spoors
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Boy Kills World may seem like an inclusive feature, but underneath the admittedly fun carnage is a feeble attempt at genuine representation.
Posted Jun 14, 2024
|
|
A-
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Dìdi
(2024)
|
Chris Akiba
|
As a Japanese American skate teen, I couldn’t have imagined back then that a movie like Dìdi would one day capture this exact vibe.
Posted Jun 07, 2024
|
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B-
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The Fall Guy
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
The Fall Guy easily avoids toxic tropes or obvious stereotypes.
Posted May 06, 2024
|
|
D
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Madame Web
(2024)
|
Kylie Jost-Price
|
Madame Web can’t shake the sense of a male gaze, egged on by its all-male writers.
Posted May 02, 2024
|
|
B
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Monkey Man
(2024)
|
Weiting Liu
|
Monkey Man leans on tropes about women, but its inclusion of marginalized hijras works brilliantly.
Posted Apr 09, 2024
|
|
B-
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Dune: Part Two
(2024)
|
Gavin Spoors
|
Dune: Part Two improves upon its predecessor, thanks to a bigger focus on the Fremen, but its inclusiveness is still watered down.
Posted Mar 18, 2024
|
|
A-
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Love Lies Bleeding
(2024)
|
Weiting Liu
|
While Love Lies Bleeding has a small cast, precluding a wide assortment of diverse characters, it digs deep into the development of one lesbian couple.
Posted Mar 07, 2024
|
|
C-
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The Zone of Interest
(2023)
|
Dana Sloane
|
As writer Dara Horn notes, that there seems to be no end to the number of stories about how Jews died, but very little interest in the ways in which they live.
Posted Mar 04, 2024
|
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B
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Anatomy of a Fall
(2023)
|
Ishmeet Nagpal
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Using an understated but powerful approach, Anatomy of a Fall opens up multiple discussion points regarding gender, sexuality, and disability.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
|
|
D
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Maestro
(2023)
|
Alicja Johnson
|
Maestro has a straight man playing a queer musician, a non-Hispanic woman playing a Latina, and the internet got mad about a NOSE?!
Posted Mar 01, 2024
|
|
B+
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The Marvels
(2023)
|
Gavin Spoors
|
It’s a joy to watch these superwomen support and empower one another.
Posted Feb 25, 2024
|
|
B+
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Drive-Away Dolls
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Drive-Away Dolls is a great example of what beloved directors can do when they try out new types of characters and identities in their stories.
Posted Feb 23, 2024
|
|
C-
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Kneecap
(2024)
|
Gavin Spoors
|
While Kneecap's hip-hop trio hammers home the importance of culture and community, it’s a shame that the sole non-white character is nothing more than a goofy henchman.
Posted Feb 20, 2024
|
|
C+
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Freaky Tales
(2024)
|
Weiting Liu
|
Freaky Tales paints an inspirational picture of Black-Korean solidarity in Oakland.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
|
|
D
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Argylle
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Argylle hypersexualizes most of its female spies and barely remembers to include characters of color, all of them tokenized.
Posted Feb 06, 2024
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|
B
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The Tiger's Apprentice
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
The Tiger's Apprentice needed to build on the shoulders of its forebears, not simply rehash Chinese American tropes and expect the same delight from viewers.
Posted Feb 01, 2024
|
|
A-
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Reinas
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Ostensibly about a deadbeat dad trying to get to know his daughters, it’s the relationships between women in Reinas that provide the most satisfying conclusions.
Posted Jan 29, 2024
|
|
B
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In the Land of Brothers
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
In the Land of Brothers gives insights into the casually cruel treatment of Hazara Afghan refugees in Iran.
Posted Jan 24, 2024
|
|
B-
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Brief History of a Family
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Brief History of a Family has its misses on the inclusion front, but it's a captivating portrayal of the aftereffects of China's one-child policy.
Posted Jan 21, 2024
|
|
B+
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Thelma
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Aging and disability often go hand in hand, and Josh Margolin easily works that fact into Thelma, leveraging it for power and humor.
Posted Jan 19, 2024
|
|
A-
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Origin
(2023)
|
Carolyn Hinds
|
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor gives a soul-stirring performance, but she can’t rein in the overstretched film by sheer force of will.
Posted Jan 17, 2024
|
|
B
|
Mean Girls
(2024)
|
Li Lai
|
Mean Girls takes a benign but superficial approach to diversity.
Posted Jan 12, 2024
|
|
B-
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Poor Things
(2023)
|
Ro Moore
|
The film’s queer characters are more than throwaways.
Posted Dec 29, 2023
|
|
B
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American Fiction
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
American Fiction’s small inclusion-related missteps undermine its own thesis.
Posted Dec 16, 2023
|
|
B
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Talk to Me
(2023)
|
Kylie Jost-Price
|
It’s refreshing to see a transmasc actor play a pivotal part of Talk to Me without having their gender identity exploited.
Posted Dec 07, 2023
|
|
F
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Oppenheimer
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
I was uncomfortable watching yet another film about tortured white male genius when the victims of the atrocities glossed over by Oppenheimer had no voice.
Posted Dec 03, 2023
|
|
C+
|
Rustin
(2023)
|
Ro Moore
|
The film doesn’t go far enough to say anything of substance.
Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
(2022)
|
Chris Akiba
|
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi delves into Japanese American history and identity, but at times its discussions on race feel underdeveloped.
Posted Nov 28, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Saltburn
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Saltburn toes the blurred line between a positive reclamation of the ‘evil gays’ trend and a negative stereotype.
Posted Nov 24, 2023
|
|
B
|
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Despite its racial diversity, the film employs the safe but shallow "colorblind" approach that blunts its positive effects.
Posted Nov 19, 2023
|
|
C+
|
All of Us Strangers
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Taichi Yamada’s Strangers originally features a straight protagonist, but the book’s themes of loneliness and an unhappy childhood lend themselves to a queer interpretation.
Posted Nov 12, 2023
|
|
B+
|
The Holdovers
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Characters in The Holdovers have an assortment of disabilities—some of them normalized, but some that border on cliche.
Posted Nov 05, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Bye Bye Tiberias
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Though it shares a perspective that’s sorely underrepresented in film, Bye Bye Tiberias stands too close to its subjects.
Posted Sep 13, 2023
|
|
B-
|
Red, White & Royal Blue
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Red, White & Royal Blue continues a bias for a certain type of queer presentation.
Posted Aug 15, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Shortcomings
(2023)
|
Elaine Cho
|
Shortcomings doesn’t try to force any answers on us, acknowledging the thorniness of honest, unfiltered conversations.
Posted Aug 08, 2023
|
|
B+
|
Barbie
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Margot Robbie plays the main character in Barbie, but it’s Latina women—America Ferrera’s Gloria and onscreen daughter Sasha—that tug at the heartstrings the most.
Posted Jul 21, 2023
|
|
B-
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Elemental
(2023)
|
Elva Si
|
The choice to present Wade as the catalyst for Ember’s growth devalues her strength and independence.
Posted Jul 20, 2023
|
|
C+
|
The Miracle Club
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Positive portrayals of disability are neutralized by the story arc for Dolly’s young son.
Posted Jul 12, 2023
|
|
A+
|
Joy Ride
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Though comedies featuring queer Gen Z teens have been taking Hollywood by storm, it’s a little rarer to watch adults in their late twenties and early thirties break out of the cis and straight paradigm.
Posted Jul 07, 2023
|
|
C
|
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
While the film does avoid the more obvious Orientalist fearmongering seen in past films, portrayals of North Africans remain stereotypical.
Posted Jul 02, 2023
|
|
A+
|
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
|
Elaine Cho
|
Sun-Spider is voiced by Danielle Perez, herself a wheelchair user. Nor is Sun-Spider the only disabled character in the film.
Posted Jun 12, 2023
|
|
D
|
Fast X
(2023)
|
Elaine Cho
|
Momoa's Dante is at first a lively and welcome departure from the series’ previous forgettable villains, until he slips into offensive stereotypes.
Posted May 28, 2023
|
|
A+
|
Gaga
(2022)
|
Li Lai
|
"Laha Mebow expands the rather homogenous pool of Taiwanese filmmakers, opening the door for more female and Indigenous perspectives."
Posted May 22, 2023
|
|
B-
|
The Mattachine Family
(2023)
|
Li Lai
|
Given the pressing need for a wider range of movies that happen to feature LGBTQ relationships, The Mattachine Family should be embraced.
Posted May 13, 2023
|
|
A-
|
Polite Society
(2023)
|
Elaine Cho
|
Polite Society draws from the personal frustrations and challenges of writer-director Nida Manzoor, who grew up in a Pakistani Muslim family.
Posted May 01, 2023
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