Written and Directed by Hafsia Herzi

I saw La Petite Dernière (The Little Sister) as a part of the French Cinema festival (Rendez-Vous with French Cinema) at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, including a Q & A with lead actress Nadia Melliti post-screening.

This film begins by holding the camera at the clothed back of our protagonist, Fatima, in front of her bathroom mirror, affixed to a deep blue/green wall, as she meticulously scrubs her hands and arms all the way up to her elbows – the camera moves to steadily hold her hands as the water runs over them – and finally, we see a splendid close-up shot of Fatima’s composed, assured face as she faces her mirror – she’s ready for her first prayer of the day.

A good deal of this film takes place in Fatima’s classrooms in which she’s a student. Strikingly, this film speaks to “voluntary solitude,” as discussed in Fatima’s philosophy class, which is reflected in her own life. Even when she is in groups of people, she is emotionally reserved. She starts off the film guarded and difficult to read, as though she is keeping her cards close to her chest. Her demeanor always appears to be inherently calm and detached.

Fatima holds everything she feels so tightly inside, while still being enchantingly doe-eyed in close-up shots. I love her gentle unfurling throughout the film, from a placid face to soft breaks into warm smiles. It is so believable that Fatima is an athlete, in just the way she carries herself and skips down the stairs; the way she moves on screen with raw athleticism.

One of my favorite scenes is Fatima and Jin-Ha (an awe-inspiring Park Ji-min)’s first meeting – the pronounced pause between the two of them as they genuinely look at each other and really, truly, see each other.

The female intimacy in which this film explores is superb – both drawn-out in tranquil gazes laden with wonderment and awe – to raw passion, like devouring each other to their core, unrepressed desire. I adore the tenderness regarding hair — how their intimacy includes softly stroking hair with so much innate love and kindness.

The Pride festival scene was so magical – the sound design came alive and I could see Jin-Ha drawing joy in rays that shined upon Fatima – and we see Fatima with her face wide open with jubilance for the first time.

The natural light in this film is so calming – from the crystalline, muted blues of dawn, in which our disciplined protagonist rises, gazing out the window, and/or descending into prayer – to the resplendent yellow pulsing glow of late morning illuminating the family kitchen as the three sisters squabble. This film is so salient in showing overlapping chatter and conversation between friends and family – it feels effortlessly natural.

I felt remarkably seen in the night-time scenes – moving fluidly with the mass of dancers, dancing in unison with friends – as recently as the night before this screening. Seeing the queer/lesbian nightlife reminded me of my night out at the Brooklyn lesbian bar, The Bush, dancing with abandon, surrounded by my friends in the throng of bodies.

I was elated to see Fatima’s rendezvous at La Mutinerie. It is the lesbian bar I visited when I was studying abroad in Paris and it became my absolute favorite bar in Paris.

I’ve been thinking about Fatima’s pseudonyms in her clandestine rendezvous with women, such as the name Linda, and the significance of those names and the ethnicities she pulls with them, such as declaring herself Egyptian. There are so many moments in which she is asked her ethnicity (Algerian) until, in university, a guy told his inquisitive friend, “do people ask you where you’re from for you to say French?” It’s a beautiful disruption to what had become commonplace and mundane.

I was really struck by how Fatima has this quiet confidence that allows her to be still in rooms of intermingling people. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her complete and utter disinterest in men when they tried to flirt with her — I ecstatically see my younger self in her.

The Q & A with lead actress Nadia Melliti, who plays Fatima, was illuminating. Nadia told the story of how she got cast for the role of Fatima. I am so impressed by Nadia being spotted and approached on the street, having never acted before! In the Q & A, with humility, she spoke about how everyone involved in the film added all their ingredients together to make a “fabulous cake.”

I have to give this film a 4.5/5.

Valentine’s Weekend meant that I dragged my partner to see Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, and they grudgingly obliged to please me. Isn’t that the true meaning of Valentine’s Day? For girls to get their partners to do whatever romantic fluffiness they wish for? So we settled into a dark theater to watch whatever this adaptation (or the loosest sense of the word) was intended to be.

I had a good time.

I couldn’t help it – I was visually courted by the new Wuthering Heights. I’m a big fan of how extremely visually stimulating this film is. The cinematography is audacious and wide-sweeping.

I thoroughly enjoyed the color scheme of deep reds and light pinks. The costuming for Cathy is resplendent. My favorite costume was the one in which Cathy was in a splendid red and white dress – from her white bodice dotted with red roses to her full vivid red skirts. Margot Robbie played her absolutely darling in her theatrical ladylikeness.

Owen Cooper was utterly fantastic as a young Heathcliff. His eyes looked so softly upon young Cathy. He looked hopelessly besotted with love and adulation. I’m so glad to see him in more projects after Adolescence!

I loved how dramatic Cathy was – everything was like a life or death situation for her. Margot Robbie played a petulant, melodramatic Cathy so strikingly. She pouted so despondently. Her attention-seeking was both overly elaborate and unwittingly charming.

One of my favorite lines was when Cathy was pointblankly accusing her “companion” Nelly of enjoying seeing her cry – and Nelly immediately retorted, “not half as much as you like crying.” That line delivery from Hong Chau was so caustic it was exceptional.

I adore when Chains of Love by Charlix XCX started playing! It fit exquisitely well over Cathy looking despairing in her ostentatious splendor. As her life grew more extravagant, Cathy grew more and more helplessly pining. It’s fun to see the visuals paired with a song that I’ve been listening to all winter since it was released.

Scenes I especially liked were when Cathy would insolently tell someone exactly what she knew would strike at their hearts the most. They ranged from her putting down a woman deigning to challenge her to intensifying Heathcliff into his ferocious emotionality. I could see just how much Margot Robbie breathed an electrifying callousness into her performance as Cathy.

It wouldn’t be an Emerald Fennell film if it wasn’t psychosexual – mind games become sex games and vice versa.

Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff was so temperamental it became operatic. He became a muddled composite of a “man written by a woman.” The ultimate brooding leading man, he spent so much of the film groaning and grunting and gasping with heaving breaths.

I do wonder about his casting. For all his moodiness, I couldn’t quite see truly wild feelings in Jacob Elordi’s eyes. Owen Cooper, however, emoted endearingly in his young Heathcliff role.

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi did have wondrously good physical chemistry in this film – I felt the devouring entanglement they were surrendering themselves to. Hats off to the intimacy coordinator! I wish, however, I could see that impassioned connection emotionally between them – in heartwrenching stares and mindless devotion. When I’m in the mood for romance, I am in the mood for headspinning, soul crushing intimacy.

However, I’m okay with turning my brain off and enjoying the longing lows and explosive highs Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi provided to me. I am not above smutty fanfiction.

This film is aesthetically pleasing enough to be forgiven for its faults. Lovely!

3.5/5

Sundance Film Online Screening 1/31/26

Union County

Written and Directed by Adam Meeks

US Dramatic Competition

Assigned to a Court-Mandated Drug Court Program, Cody Parsons embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.

At the end of this film, I was weeping as the credits were rolling. I didn’t expect to cry for some reason but, looking back, how could I not?

As a Public Defender, these dudes could be (and probably are) my clients. I’ve never seen a more realistic film on drug addiction. It also makes me prouder of my clients. This is so empathetic and I never knew it would be this raw and real.

Cody (“Will Poulter”) and Jake (“Noah Centineo”) are brothers at the heart of this film.

Will Poulter is one of the producers and I wonder how much connection he has with that story.

Noah Centineo dissolved himself into his role. He’s the farthest cry away from his best known project “To All The Boys I Loved Before.” I’m happy for him escaping the type-cast category!

Will Poulter literally perfectly acted out the behavior of an addict. It’s not sensationalized.

This film is what happens after “the inciting event” that isn’t typically focused upon that much. (Think about how Rue in Euphoria was before she’d made it back to school after the summer). What happens after the moment it gets so bad you get in trouble with the law. Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? You don’t just “magically” appear in court. You do something that gets emergency services called on you. And that’s how it all begins.

As a Public Defender, I’m often the one who steps in at that part, who tries to “stem the bleeding.” When it’s gotten so bad this becomes a danger to themselves and others. It’s a tricky situation, though, because oftentimes the addicts are in court because of them harming themselves.

The State has decided that your life “inherentingly matters.” That is why it’s a different kind of “punitive” system. And at times, therapy is what’s helpful. Otherwise, drug treatment is what’s helpful.

I see why drug treatment court is so different from the rest of court. Where the judge is so kind, and the whole audience claps for you. It’s about actually taking steps to take care of yourself.

I understand now the “Phase 1, 2, and 3” and so on terminology. They go up in phases and you go to court along the way. Then, when you graduate, you have a certificate and you’re done. I step in when the certificate is given. I never see before that.

In that respect, all I am is a mouthpiece. That’s the one part of my job in which I am actually just a mouthpiece. We are given notes on how our client is doing. We read those out loud. And then it’s done, before I ever even litigate it at court.

This is the peek behind the curtain, what the lawyers don’t see because it’s messy and human. Lawyers, by nature of our job, have to not be involved in the messy and human. Instead, I get to hand my client off to social workers and programs. I see the way they care for my clients. And I feel that my client is safe.

An overdose, I realize, is when a client kills themself. That’s what it is. And sometimes, the person is found in time. Other times, they’re not. An overdose can be the inciting event.

And I remember thinking, at the beginning of the film, “where is the inciting event?” It didn’t come until later, and it was heartbreaking.

We see the people in their lives before the “inciting event.” And how that event changes their relationship, perhaps irrevocably.

One poignant line in the film goes,

“It’s not anyone else’s fault. It’s not his fault. It’s not my fault. It’s not your fault.”

How often do we carry those heavy, heavy, burdensome feelings of responsibility? It is really, really not our fault. We weren’t there when our clients’ lives started and we won’t be there after our client is done with their case. I have to remember that sometimes. Sometimes, I put the weight of the world on my shoulders and I’m not at fault. I am not responsible for another human being’s choices.

And I saw how it is a choice when there was the “turn around” event. How the person actually stops using. How much that means to the people in their lives. That’s recovery. That’s graduating.

They call the people in their lives, who care about them. And it’s massive. And maybe that’s why some people feel abandoned when a loved one uses — “how can this person not care about me enough to stop?”

And that’s the main problem — it really can’t be about the loved ones. This person needs to believe that their life has “inherent worth.”

It’s also why some loved ones can be really cruel — they made this person feel like their life does not have inherent worth. Real loved ones are the ones that remind you that your life has inherent worth. Who stick it out with you. Who care.

In one particular scene in this film, I was so moved by the woman on the other end of the line when she asked Cody, “are you okay?” She cared. And feeling that somebody cares is huge. It’s humongous.

And there it is, sometimes — is there ever recovery? People come back and come back and come back again. And I think of one of the most poignant scenes in the film for me, in which the mother of another narcotics anonymous participant’s friend is at the same meeting, speaks volumes. They grew up in community with each other. This kid has seen what their friend’s mother did to them, and now they’re doing it to their own kids. He’s excited to get full custody of his kids again — and she said she’s still working on it. This hits so heavily.

I think of how a huge precursor for addiction is loss. Of grief. Of mourning. And it’s because this person cannot cope that they can turn to hurting themself. I have a lot of empathy for my clients in that way. It’s all about coping skills.

I feel a release right now just writing this.

Thank you to Will Poulter for being so raw and real in bringing this story to life.

I’m sometimes curious as to how my client’s lives are after I’m in them. I have a client whose life completely turned around for the better. He wasn’t drinking anymore. He was feeling so much better about himself. And he was so proud to tell me that. I got so emotional.

This film is such an accurate story about drug treatment court and all the players in it — except for the role of defense attorneys, which are not seen in the film.

This only added to how far this film is from my removed lens as a criminal defense attorney. This is up close and personal — what it looks like when someone gets visitation for their kids, what happens when someone violates probation — it’s human and messy and where defense attorneys’ empathy has to come from.

That is why I remind a lot of people that my clients are only human. I know that it is so easy to lash out and call them bad people. However, it is so important for people to believe in their own humanity. And we have to realize that this can happen to any of us. Instead of creating a monster in our own heads.

It was exceedingly powerful when Cody was told that he is a good person.

I also think about how Cody’s sister said: “There are a lot of things I can’t understand. And there are a lot of things I don’t think I can ever forgive.”

I love love love the quiet moments, that, based on Will Poulter’s excellently subtle acting, convey the gravest impact. These are also moments that show deliberate choices being made, and how clearly we (the viewers) can see how much Cody is thinking about them before he acts. Even something as seemingly small as whether or not to answer a phone call.

A Deadline interview of Director Adam Meeks and Will Poulter expands upon their vision for the film.

“I was introduced to this drug court judge through my uncle who runs this county mandated drug court program, and I was just blown away by the humanity and the empathy in these rooms, and by this kind of counter-narrative that I wasn’t aware of, which was people actually getting better… There was not anybody at the time talking about the number of people who were actually getting back on their feet.” – Adam Meeks1

“One thing the film does very well, it doesn’t shy away from the harsher, more devastating truths of addiction, but it’s certainly weighted towards the more hopeful and positive aspects of the story, which is every bit as true as the negatives that we already know about.” – Will Poulter2

It’s such a good, fantastic film.

4/5

zi

NEXT

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night — and possibly her life.

Extra Geography

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

In an English girls boarding school, two teenage best friends grapple with the challenges of girlhood — friendship, boys, studies, and growing up — and embark on their school project, falling in love.

LADY

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble

In the sprawling African Metropolis of Lagos, a fiercely independent young cab driver meets a band of radiantly reckless sex workers whose sisterhood pulls her into danger and joy, setting her on a journey toward her own transformation.

I felt the most drawn to the films listed above in the Sundance lineup this year, and I happily attended online screenings for all three of them. Upon watching all three, I’ve realized that I was intuitively drawn to the same theme of girlhood. These are all stories of young girls figuring out life with each other as they are the center of each other’s universes. Whether they are boarding school students in the UK, artists in Hong Kong, or working women in Nigeria, these are stories of young women finding a home in each other. These stories all center young women who forge intimate bonds with one another.

zi

Written and Directed by Kogonada

This is truly an experimental film. It’s so atmospheric and moody yet light and airy. This film has gorgeous cinematography beautifully building up from Kogonada’s previous feature, “Columbus.” I love the striking reds and vibrant blues. This is shot on film in the most delectable way. Every shot is a painting. Every shot is a work of art. Every shot is a beacon of photography. The cinematographer, Benjamin Loeb, gives a masterclass in coloring.

Michelle Mao’s Zi is equal parts woe-begone-fawn and baby bird. Lightly moving through the air, hair and blouse and pants fluttering while she essentially pirouettes down the streets of Hong Kong. Rounded doe eyes looking up with wonder and fragility. Haley Lu Richarson’s Elle is magnificently alive and vibrant and yet also somber and devastating. Her heart is always in her eyes. Zi and Elle feel like yin and yang, earth and sky, water and fire, the moon and the sun.

I see so much tenderness that is slowly drawn out to maximum softness. The gentleness feels like fresh linen. I can taste the sweetness.

The score is so raw and pertinent to the moods of the film, lending the full weight of emotion. I am so impressed by how much of a technical masterpiece this film is.

The final 3 minutes of this film is so ethereally shot with the ephemeral nature of the film soaking up the scene. Michelle Mao’s performance is revelatory. The final shots of her face, a mix of emotions amid the current of exquisite relief, a quiet euphoria, knocked the air out of my lungs.

This film is a love letter to Hong Kong. This is a love letter to every alleyway, every set of steps, every market, every flow of traffic. Equal parts set over the course of a single day and single night, the sprawl of Hong Kong, from the endless steps to the robust night markets, is illuminated throughout the entire film. An urban fairytale.

There’s a significance to the red string and Jade around Zi’s neck. In Chinese culture, the red thread symbolizes Fate, and its vibrancy between two people who meet and feel especially connected to each other. Jade, especially, has deep ties to Chinese culture. Confucius says it best.

“Its color represents loyalty; its interior flaws, always showing themselves through the transparency, call to mind sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its admirable substance, born of mountain and of water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornamentation it represents chastity. The price that the entire world attaches to it represents the truth.” Li Ji (Book of Rites).

The moment in this film that moved me the most is when both Zi and Elle were feeling each other’s faces, tracing each other’s faces with gentleness, and then crowning each other with their individual necklaces. Elle at first would not accept the Jade — it’s an important heritage to Zi’s family, but Zi echoes her earlier line — she struggles to remember her parents’ faces. In this moment, I feel how they are truly there for each other in a lonely city.

4.5/5

Extra Geography

Directed by Molly Manners

Written by Miriam Battye (adapting the short story written by Rose Tremain)

This film perfectly encapsulates homoerotic female friendships and platonic intimacy. It hits every single mark of the model-modeler dynamic, inherent competitiveness, and vows to only ever do things with one another.

Minna (played by Galaxie Clear) and Flic (played by Marni Duggan) are best friends in the same boarding school, breathing in the same air as each other and building their lives together in their own ecosystem. A third girl, Phoebe (played by Aoife Riddell), weaves in and out of their orbit.

There is not a single man present in the whole entire film. Girls, women, boys, but no men. This film tells a story of girlhood through and through.

I particularly love how this film expands upon Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, especially given how much these two best friends at the center of the film have their striking resemblances to those of the latter film. Minna and Flic are checking out books on romance to studiously read and highlight — and low and behold, the final book on the top of the pile of pride and prejudice et al, is Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

Watching this film, I felt this deep connection to being a girl in boarding school with my best friend in the world. I didn’t know I would see myself in them as much as I did. I was especially thinking about the feeling of superiority for being “successful” in a school like that, while also constantly thinking about what’s next in our lives instead of just letting ourselves be girls living out an idyllic education.

A particularly striking moment is when Flic pretends to have her period to change her pad at the same time as Minna — the desire for that closeness. Another striking moment is when Minna softly rouges Flic’s cheeks — a universal moment of girlhood.

The artistic symbolism woven within the film, from the paintings at the start of each “act” to the actual school play of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is rich and propulsive.

The notion that Minna and Flic, determined to be the best at everything, decide to ace “falling in love” is so hilarious and fantastical. And yet, they take this project extremely seriously — until it might mean more to one of them than the other. What starts off as a competition to be the best at falling in love with their decided mutual object of desire, turns into deeper self-discovery of why they actually are and who they actually like.

5/5

Lady

Written and Directed by Olive Nwosu

Lady (played by Jessica Gabriel’s Ujah) is a no-nonsense cab driver running from her past. Pinky (played by Amanda Oruh) is Lady’s past catching up on her. Sugar (played by Tinuade Jemiseye) is equal parts night butterfly and fairy godmother.

The sounds in this film automatically transport me back to Lagos with the soundscape of the traffic. This is Lagos, but this is a far cry from my Lagos. This is the underbelly, the desperate, the deserted. It is a shock when we encounter an area that looks like where I grew up — it feels like a horror to see how much people have to possess juxtaposing people living in squalor.

I am transfixed by Pinky’s fairy-like image in sparkles and Sugar’s vibrant doll-like shimmers. Pink and Gold. And Lady, so Blue.

I have a newfound appreciation of the colors that make up the landscape of Lagos — from the colors of the red shanty roofs, to the color of the aqua waters.

There is a dreamlike quality I really like. At night, Lady looks blue.

4/5

Overall, a fantastic line-up!

A snowstorm had just hit New York City, and my partner Willow and I were hunkering down on the couch for a snowy night in.

Willow, an avid Heated Rivalry fan, needed a new piece of visual media in which they could watch emotionally repressed queer boys in vividly sumptuous and aesthetically pleasing cinematography. When God’s Own Country popped up as a suggestion on our TV, watching it immediately was a no-brainer for us.

I first saw God’s Own Country on Netflix, closer to when it was released in theaters in 2017. God’s Own Country is part of a triad of indie films about queer love and desire that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that year: Call Me By Your Name (starring Timothée Chalamet)1, God’s Own Country (starring Josh O’Connor)2, and Beach Rats (starring Harris Dickinson)3. Fascinating how all three of these actors' careers rocketed up after their breakout roles in these queer arthouse films. Every single one of those films was fundamental to my appreciation for tastefully-directed, thoughtfully-written indie films about both the devastation and euphoria of the queer experience.

God’s Own Country holds a particularly indelible piece of my heart. Sharing it with Willow felt like a pivotal moment in our relationship.

Moody and atmospheric, the film’s setting of Yorkshire in England aptly reflects the sullen temperament of our protagonist, John Saxby. In true saturnine fashion, John trudges through the work of taking care of his family farm’s livestock during the day and then tumbles out of the local bar at night. He’s closed off and taciturn, barely making the effort to continue a conversation. Hilariously, Willow would grumble about how much of a miserable **** he was, while I would contain my excitement, knowing that his journey had only just begun.

Once Gheorghe, from Romania, appeared as a new farmer to work on the farm closely with John, all mysterious and accented, Willow and I were both buzzing with hushed anticipation.

Gheorghe was unflappable in the storm that is John, even-tempered and admirably self-possessed. His calming presence and placid nature felt like he was rooted in the Earth beneath their feet. He was so grounding Willow instantly decided that he must be a Taurus.

They were so struck by the tenderness and the softness that Gheorghe taught John. They gushed at every single moment Gheorghe lifted his hand to treat John with care and showed John how to do the same. They squealed with excitement whenever John grew to model Gheorghe’s tender loving care. A quiet serenity.

While I did not remember many of the plot points of the film from watching it when it first came out, I did remember the gentleness. And this gentleness moved me greatly all over again.

Both directed and written by Francis Lee (his debut film!), the film’s melancholic touch comes directly from his own experience living in Yorkshire, living on his own among the rolling hills. The two leads, Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu, both actually spent weeks doing in-depth manual labor on the farm, giving their hands a familiarity with the earth in which they would be filming.4

Josh O’Connor’s acting blew me away, especially knowing how much farther he’s come now. He has a way of becoming a chameleon when he acts, just the utter opposite of his typically goodnatured self. I do feel a sense of pride as if I contributed just the tiniest bit to his deserved acting recognition.

Alec Secareanu’s face was made for the camera. Willow was awestruck every time the light hit his face perfectly. I loved seeing their photography brain at work, marveling at the way this was filmed. As Gheorghe, he is exquisitely framed in the natural light, resplendent in a golden shine.

A renewed fascination I have for this film revolves around the setting as a character herself. I especially deepened my understanding of the bucolic nature of the film by seeing it next to Willow this time, a true farm kid through and through. They pointed out to me everything we saw them doing with the sheep and cows that they did themself on their own farm growing up. Even in a different scene, momentarily in a different farm, Willow recognized the sawdust and the sparrow song that transported them right back to their childhood farm.

The delicate cinematography pulled at my heart strings again. The vivid blues and soft greens of the landscape took over the screen. The music paired with deeply moving scenes focused on the two ambling around the idyllic landscape brought me to tears.

In the daytime, it’s foggy and muted. At night, the fire lends a warm glow.

I’ve been thinking about how when John first told Gheorghe that the baby lamb he was trying to save would be the runt, Gheorghe still breathed the newborn lamb to life. Such an incisive image of Gheorghe’s naturally nurturing presence over something that would’ve otherwise been discarded. The ability to bring fragile things to life with patience and steady hands. The imagery is so searingly poignant it aches.

Willow pointed out that Gheorghe has excellent husbandry skills. I didn’t know what that meant, but I understood what they were talking about. We watched Gheorghe adeptly making sure a baby lamb, abandoned by their mother, could be reintegrated back into their community. His hands are skilled, his actions measured, his intuition astute, his mind shrewd.

I loved seeing Willow see the process from which John started out brittle and cold and harsh and then eventually, under Gheorghe’s spell, thawed out and embraced intimacy with heated looks and open arms. Seeing Willow’s joy watching the intimacy unfurl, slowly, then all at once, was priceless.

I am distinctly struck by the French title for this film, “Seule La Terre,” which directly translates to “Only The Earth.” This is the most succinct description for the theme of this film: two men finding intimacy in the sprawl of the land they commune over.

This film retains its status as a 5/5 film for me.

I had vastly different experiences viewing “It was Just An Accident” and “No Other Choice.” My goal has been to see as many foreign films as I can this year and I was thrilled to see both of these films this week.

Upon perusal online, I discovered that “It Was Just An Accident” was only showing at Film Forum and Syndicated Bar & Theater! Personally, I believe that it was a tragedy that it’s so limited. Nevertheless, I have only had positive experiences at Syndicated Bar & Theater, and so I visited Bushwick’s sole movie theater, a classic indie jaunt. The dine-in experience was lush and I gladly helped myself to a hibiscus margarita.

For “No Other Choice,” I saw that the film was being shown at AMC Theaters, so my AMC A-List came very much in handy. This film I saw with my partner, knowing that we had both enjoyed the director Park Chan-Wook’s prior film, “Decision To Leave,” a moody thriller with gorgeous cinematography.

I was seriously struck by the parallels between these two films. Both films feature men pursuing their perceived enemies and setting out to destroy them. Both films, in the end, are road trip movies. They play with time and space and warp the senses.

The most fascinating part of both films is that both protagonists believed that they had nothing to lose. And we discover that a man that believes he has nothing to lose is the most dangerous man there is. Some people hit rock bottom and believe the only way is up. Others hit rock bottom and start digging. The protagonists of these two films are very much largely the latter.

The theme of these films is oppression. For “It Was Just An Accident,” it explores political repression. For “No Other Choice,” it explores economic subjugation.

I was endlessly fascinated by how deeply cultural these films are. They provide a voyeuristic view inside the protagonists’ cultures, their idiosyncrasies along with their pleasures.

“It Was Just An Accident” is set in contemporary “post-dictatorship” Iran, while “No Other Choice” is set in contemporary South Korea.

—-

“It Was Just An Accident” starts out as a twisty road trip and the foot never lets off the gas pedal. It’s twisted, eerie, surreal.

It strikes me that this film explores the politics of unadulterated rage. A singular man rages after the man he believes tortured him while he was a political prisoner. His wrath is all-consuming. Swift. Impulsive.

However, he is bound by the singular thought – what if this is an innocent man? And so begins the hilarious, campy road trip, picking up a cast of characters along the way to attempt to identify this man restrained in the trunk of the van.

Shiva, a no-nonsense wedding photographer, is easily my favorite character. She calls out the protagonist, Vahid, for starting out impulsive and then becoming “sensible.” As Vahid picks up Shiva, new bride Gol (+ her groom Ali), and their friend Hamid, all former prisoners of the authoritarian regime, they bristle with the energy of finally being able to directly confront their torturer.

Everybody except Shiva erupts with rage immediately. Shiva is cautious, wary, contemplative. She later articulates her rage in clear, conscious speech and not just unconscious physical violence.

The Iranian culture in this film is sumptuous and irresistible to connect with my own Nigerian culture. The sounds of traffic, the bird song, the foliage surrounding the road, the road dividers, the reckless crossing of the roads, the stray animals, the myriad of motorbikes sharing the road with the cars. The incessant request for “gifts” from the people they encounter on their journey is so reminiscent in requests for “appreciation” in Lagos. Even the POS terminals on hand are so Nigerian. I love how cultural this film is, no holds barred.

I was struck by how there is no “score,” per se, but rather, sounds of nature; in particular, bird song. I felt really grounded into the film’s reality.

The ending sent chills right down to my bones. It reminds me of Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness with its open ending. Is it a memory thrown into the protagonist’s imagination? A fear so palpable it feels real? An ominous premonition? Regardless, there is pure abject horror.

—

“No Other Choice” is a biting satire of the absolute brutality of our capitalist society. It’s fascinating how the film begins with the protagonist whipping up his colleagues into unionizing in the face of a corporate shakeup – only to follow with the protagonist, once laid off, maniacally targeting the same people who would’ve unionized with, this time in the way between him and corporate happiness.

The film begins and ends with the ideal of the nuclear family — father, mother, son, daughter, and two beloved family dogs. The father who is the quintessential provider for his family’s luxuries. The spacious land that makes up their home. It is everything in between the beginning and the end that is dogged and brutal.

So unfolds an exploration of tenuous masculinity and the fragile male ego that, unchecked, destroys everything in its path. When the protagonist, Yoo Man-soo, is abruptly laid off due to the “corporate overlords” who he is only an expendable line manager for, what hits more than the loss of financial stability is his complete unmasking as the father of the family. He has to look his wife and his children in the eye as they are stripped of their comforts, hobbies, and everything else that brings them happiness.

In their Korean culture, being fired is considered being axed, it’s so violent. We see the exact mediations and mindfulness activities employed to give the laid off workers the will to continue. It’s no wonder we see Yoo Man-soo declare to his family that they “are at war” like they’re fighting for survival, like it’s a dog-eat-dog world, like they have to strike before they are struck.

An astute blend of the farcical and the violent, with Yoo Man-soo even likening their economic condition to his father facing the Vietcong in the Vietnam war. What he doesn’t even consider is that his father and the Vietcong were not naturally enemies, just as his rival job candidates are not the real enemy. It’s all contrived. Yoo Man-soo’s rage is misdirected but his will to be the sole survivor for the prized job he seeks is in full force.

His wife, Yoo Mi-ri, is far and away my favorite character. She bristles with her sharp, pointed words and her spurn of her husband’s failures. She is a little minx, at once faux smiling and then serrated glowering, her looks are downright homicidal.

“No Other Choice” is uttered about four times in the film, by different men believing that their job is all that they’re good for. “Paper is my life,” the men beseech their wives to understand. One of their wives snaps, “It’s not about losing your job. It’s about how you handle it.”

Can these men pivot? Accept that they can spend their time doing literally anything else? Materialize new dreams with the resources they possess? Or would they rather die than give up the livelihood that they believe defines them?

The beautiful irony of the film is that the same man who tried to unionize in the beginning against the callous suits, now must be sycophantic towards those same suits to get the one single job he would kill for.

—

Both “It Was Just An Accident” and “No Other Choice” are absolute contenders in the Oscars race. The world yearns for audacious indictments of political and socioeconomic violence.

Marty Supreme 12/16/25

I have to give my thanks to A24 for their complementary tickets for myself and one guest to attend a special screening of Marty Supreme at the New York Premiere at Regal Times Square. I recently got an A24 membership and was pleasantly surprised to discover an invitation to this screening in my inbox! I truly had a lovely experience – free concessions, including popcorn in its very own orange ball, entry passes to skip all the long lines, and free orange table tennis balls! Thank you A24 for making my experience seeing this highly-anticipated film so special.

Film Review

Everybody wants to rule the world

My karaoke song the week before I laid eyes on this film has birthed a whole new meaning.

Timothée Chalamet dissolved himself into this acerbic role. I no longer saw Timmy, but a bespectacled hurricane of a human being. Marty Mauser is a fast talking quick witted scoundrel and I love him for it.

He can’t seem to get out of his own way. It’s always one step forward, two steps back in his fits of recklessness and restlessness. His dogged determination blows up the lives of everyone around him and he somehow still comes out dry and clean. He never stays under water for long. Before the consequences of his actions come up to him, he’s already hurtled himself into a new mess.

When a big chase sequence begins, I’m literally on the edge of my seat. It’s a classic Safdie madcap dash and I live for it. After seeing Good Time and Uncut Gems, I just knew that I was in for a treat. They did not disappoint. Timothée was able to play Marty as lithe and slinky and oh, so fast. It was so fun to watch.

Note: I also loved the line “good time” that was slipped into the dialogue in the script.

For all his whirlwind life, Marty is incredibly clearheaded, assessing his options on the spot and pouncing like a wily panther. He’s agile, he’s light on his feet, and he pirouettes like a dancer. It’s incredible to see the way his mind works and see precisely when he figures out how to game people.

This is a film about table tennis in a way that Challengers is a film about tennis — it’s all a metaphor. In this film, it symbolizes the fast paced, airy, spinning, dynamic life Marty bounces around in, bound by swiftness and malleability. He’s always taking the highest leap possible fearlessly.

He reminds me of the tarot card The Fool, known for leaps of faith and optimism. Benefits of the energy of The Fool card lie in spontaneity and childlike joy. And then, on the flip side The Fool can manifest in impulsivity, naiveté, and carelessness.Temerarious. His devil-may-care attitude may be exceptionally charming and also boldly repelling.

I was endlessly fascinated.

This film reminds me of Charles Bukowski’s poem, Let It Enfold You, recited by Timothée Chalamet himself in his previous film, Beautiful Boy.

From:

I was living a hell in

small rooms, I broke

things, smashed things,

walked through glass,

cursed.

I challenged everything,

was continually being

evicted, jailed, in and

out of fights, in and out

of my mind.

women were something

to ***** and rail

at

To:

I saw the shape of my

wife’s head,

she so still,

I ached for her life,

just being there

under the

covers.

I kissed her in the

forehead

Marty Mauser, this firecracker of a man who can talk his way into or out of anything, who can’t sit still, also holds light and love and peace and happiness inside him.

I must also commend Odessa A’zion’s performance. I feel an Anima/Animus connection between Odessa A’zion and Timothée Chalamet in this film! Rachel Mizler, played by Odessa A’zion, is just as scrappy, reckless, and willful as Marty himself. I truly enjoyed seeing their dynamic on screen together.

I have to mention Marty’s fashion! The octagonal frames, the vests, the tailored pants. I’m so envious!

Run, don’t walk, to see this film.

4.5/5

I saw Sentimental Value, alone, in the underbelly of AMC Lincoln Square – down two escalators to one of the little theaters for indie/foreign films.

When the film ended, I sat in my seat while the credits were rolling, mulling over what I just watched. I jotted down my initial reactions right after:

I’m shaken. I feel so raw. My hands are shaking. My breath is shaky; I’m breathing but just barely.

I’m glad I saw this film by myself.

I love going in to see films only vaguely knowing what they are about. The only thing I knew about this film going in is that (1) It was set in Norway; (2) It was about a father and two daughters; (3) It was just nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes.

I walked in threadbare and left bursting with emotion for the story of a frayed and fractured family finding their way tautly back together.

Repetition. This is a film about repetition.

And it is a film about wiping the slate clean.

This film starts and, essentially, ends with a house. The House. A main character of its own.

The house, with its stories and its secrets creaking and cracking throughout. A house passed down through generations until we get to the defining event. And that is where the film begins.

And then, all its crevices and its nooks and its crannies are wiped clean and covered up. Remade. The history and the character smoothed over for something fresh and modern and new. Deep red to blank white.

This makes me think about my family home in Nigeria. It is its own character. It holds lightness and heaviness, fullness and emptiness the same way as this house in this film does.

I love a film about daughters and a film about sisters and this film thankfully is a meditation both on being the daughter to a father and a sister to a sister.

An absent father, Gustav, returns to the lives of his two daughters, sisters Agnes and Nora. Through bits and pieces, we discover that their father is an itinerant film maker chasing projects over fatherhood, only returning to his adult daughter’s lives at their mother’s funeral.

“I hope he doesn’t think he has to start being a father,” one of the sisters says to the other.

I love Agnes and Nora’s sisterhood. I love the moments in which they face each other and really look at each other. The moment Nora holds Agnes in her arms leaves an ache inside of me.

“I felt safe.” That’s the line that got me. Agnes talking to Nora, the little sister to the big sister.

I spent the film marveling at how Agnes grew up full of love with her heart in her eyes. And Nora asked the question: how is it they both came from the same childhood, but Agnes is well-adjusted with a family and a home that she’s created for herself? And Agnes says they did not have the same childhood. Agnes’ childhood was different, because Agnes had Nora. When their mother wasn’t feeling good and their father was not there, Nora took care of her. Nora washed and combed her hair. Nora made Agnes feel safe.

(And Agnes says to Nora that Nora doesn’t think she’s a caring person, but she is, because Nora took care of her.)

Isn’t that what everything comes down to? What makes one person grow up completely detached from human intimacy while another person grows up reversing the coldness they came from? We need to feel safe.

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about what it means to feel safe. Safety feels like having a sense of belonging with no strings attached. No conditions. No exceptions. It’s a constant, present, enduring feeling of love and closeness.

Picturing Nora and Agnes growing up, with Nora dealing with the brunt of the parental instability, and still being the parent to Agnes that she never had for herself, brought tears to my eyes.

I think Agnes is my favorite character. I love the scene in which she’s finally having it out with their father, the scene in which her father says his fondest memory was of directing her in his film when she was little. And he says he wants her son in his new film. And she says yes, she had a good time with her father, the best time of her life, because she was the center of the (his) universe. But then when it was over, he left. And she didn’t understand how the center of the universe could just change. And I could see in her eyes how she didn’t want the same thing to happen to her son. She didn’t want it to repeat itself.

Reminds me a little of the film “His Three Daughters.” Another film centering sisterhood of adult women and father-daughterhood; set in New York City.

I’m fascinated by how Nora’s father sees himself in her and also sees his mother in her. And somehow, I understand my father better. This is an admission that I am my father’s daughter and I never saw it as clearly as this moment watching a film set in Norway, half a world away from where I’m from.

When Gustav invites his daughter Nora (a theater actress) to lunch to tell her he wrote a script for her to star in, Nora calls out her father for not deserving to have her involved in his film out of the blue, in an incredible scene of their first talk since he came back into their lives. Nora continues to remind her father of how he has failed them, in another scene, calling out her father for deciding to be an artist over being a father.

We see Elle Fanning’s star turn as a young, American actress by the name of Rachel Kemp, tapped as the next best thing for Gustav’s film. She serves almost as a surrogate daughter for the film maker as Nora detaches herself further from her father.

The scene in which Rachel meets Nora at the theater in which Nora performs feels so powerful. Two women who know Gustav separately from the other, now talking to each other face to face. Rachel’s hair dyed and styled to look just like Nora’s. Rachel softly asking Nora why she didn’t want to be in her father’s film. Nora saying they don’t know how to communicate, a call back to Nora and Gustav’s first conversation.

I’m drawn to the family history in this film found in the form of archival documents. A documented story of the life of Agnes and Nora’s grandmother, and Gustav’s mother, told in formal files of disclosed former state secrets. A picture unfolding of suicidal (grand)mother to suicidal (grand)daughter.

This film is a real doozy in family storytelling.

Side note: The Norwegian style in the film of richly colored sweaters in vivid shades of blue is so beautiful.

Final thought: Witnessing the realization between the sisters that their father did not write his new script about his mother – that he was writing about his daughter, Nora – gives me full body chills, straight down to my bones. Chills.

5/5.

I saw Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery in 35mm at the Paris Theater, a theater purchased by Netflix solely to distribute Netflix films for their requisite limited theatrical releases in order to be Academy Award contenders.

I was instantly drawn to the film by the casting of Josh O’Connor, an actor who reliably stars in films that amaze me. This film was no different.

The film, in daylight, was awash in golden natural light. Absolutely heavenly. In the nighttime, it was perfectly, spookily, misty.

I felt a kind of reverence watching this film, not because I am particularly religious, but because I felt such a spiritual tug to the heart of the film. Despair and hope, forgiveness and resilience.

I am not a Priest, I am not even a Catholic, yet this film gives me the same feeling that the High Priestess card in Tarot gives me. A feeling of being the soft spoken guide for weary souls to rest their feet.

The most powerful moment in the film, in a film full of powerful moments, is when someone asks the priest, Father Jud (played by Josh O’Connor), to pray for them. It is a moment of fragility and a much needed pause in the storm that was currently playing out on screen.

This film feels like a meditation on acceptance as part of spirituality. There is no paying penance. There is only the moment of truth, face to face with our own fallibility, and choosing to walk a different path from the path we walked yesterday.

I feel that I really, truly, for the first time, understand the Judgement Card in Tarot in my own spiritual journey. Casting aside judgement of myself and others.

This gives me “First Reformed” vibes, with Ethan Hawke as the tortured priest of self-flaggelation. But, there’s something more here.

Josh O’Connor is fabulous as always, charming the audience both with his easy, affable smiles and his tormented, soulful gaze. He hit every single comedic note! I especially love his woe begone fawn look he wears so well.

The cinematography of this film is so striking it is made to be seen in theaters!!! I got chills.

I’m still thinking about the recurring phrase uttered in this film, “that poor girl.” Perhaps that is the real story – the neverending story of how religion crushes young women.

An incredible ensemble cast, incredible writing, and incredible acting. I’m going to be completely honest here when I say Josh O’Connor stole the show from Daniel Craig. A must-see.

4.5/5

Late Fame

Rose of Nevada

Mare’s Nest

Romería

Late Fame

Dir. by Kent Jones

Starring Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, and new-to-me Edmund Donovan

Screenplay by Samy Burch

Viewed on Fri, Oct 3rd at 6pm at the Museum of the Moving Image

Initial Reactions:

just a critical look of pretentious new york “writers”

so much second hand cringe

manic pixie dream girl

it did remind me why i wrote and performed poetry

willem dafoe’s reading of the protagonist’s poem is far and away the best part of the film

looks like i’m back in my poetry bag now

Film Review:

This film took me by surprise. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was expecting. The film screening was at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. It was a cute experience as I had never ventured to that museum before! I like that it had a little box office where I could pick up my tickets by telling them my name. I love the little pink tickets they printed out that I get to put up on my bulletin board. Paper tickets are such a rarity nowadays so it felt good to hold the physical evidence of my time in my hands.

There was a sort of runaway to walk into the theater itself which was really cool. I was able to get my hands on popcorn first at the little concession spot before entering the theater. The greeters were also really friendly!

I love coming in for a solo film experience because I get to quickly spot a great seat (there were no assigned seats) in the middle between other groups of film goers. I settled in and got comfortable.

I love seeing Willem Dafoe on screen usually because he gives off very GILF vibe. However, in this film, he was playing someone really sad inside, which meant I couldn’t objectify him and I had to appreciate him as an actor.

The film was objectively well made. However, I wasn’t really buying what the story was selling. I realized I didn’t need another film about pretentious white men who believe they can write.

I was really looking forward to Greta Lee’s acting prowess in the film. However, I did not see the interiority to her character I would’ve loved to see it. Instead, her character felt like a projection of the men’s desires. She was fully giving off manic pixie dream girl vibes.

I will say, I was very inspired to write because it is a film about writing. I am drawn to writing and performing my poetry again. It always feels good to watch films about writers.

Willem Dafoe’s poetry recital was excellent, though. He is a true great of an actor. I was really sucked in to his performance.

I give this film a 3/5.

Rose of Nevada

Dir. by Mark Jenkin

Starring George Mackay and Callum Turner

Screenplay by Mark Jenkin

Viewed on Fri, Oct 3rd at 8:45pm at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Initial Reactions:

Spooky

I get why people love Callum Turner now

The parallels between this and 1917 for George Mackay (“we love you” “come back to us”)

The pink cap got me BAD

Callum Turner is so roguishly handsome in this like WOW

Director about Callum: “he was a movie star stuck on a tv show” WHEW

Film Review:

Listening to Weird Fishes (cover by Lianne LaHavas) while writing this review.

On paper, this film would not be my cup of tea. However, I have a penchant for watching and enjoying films starring George Mackay. Ever since seeing 1917, I have had a fondness for him and his roles.

This film screening was right after the screening for Late Fame at the Museum of the Moving Image. I got to get up, stretch my legs, pick up my ticket for this film from the box office, and then find another fantastic middle seat.

So, this film was weird. Really weird. But I surprisingly loved it! A large part is due to the character acting by George Mackay and especially Callum Turner.

A lot of the film centered around fishing. Major fishing. Large scale fishing. So, I got to see a lot of the behind the scenes of whole fishing expeditions. We got up close and personal with them.

However, this is not really a film about fishing. This is a film about being caught in a time loop, caught out of sync, caught trapped in another time.

As aforementioned, I loved George Mackay in 1917. Here, his character drew parallels for me between this film and 1917, where he played a soldier of war. In 1917, there was a point in the film, the most emotional point for me, in which he pulls out a little photograph of his wife and kid(s) he had been carrying around the whole film. Written on the back of the photograph was “Come back to us.” Similarly, in this film, while out at sea, he carried around a little note from his wife/kid that read “We love you.” He was tethered to this note. No matter where he showed up in time, this note remained in his bag still.

I discovered why people love Callum Turner so much. I had never gotten a chance to see him in action before, and in this film, I am truly enthralled by his performance. He slipped into the role of the roguish lad and I loved it. A pink cap he wears returns throughout the film and it fills me with a strong feeling of fondness due to the meaning and impact of it.

Watching the director’s Q & A about the film after was so enlightening. He described how fantastic of an actor Callum Turner was to work with. I have to keep an eye out for more of Callum Turner’s projects now!

I give this film a 4/5.

Mare’s Nest

Dir. by Ben Rivers

Starring Moon Guo Barker

Screenplay by Ben Rivers

Viewed on Sun, Oct 5th at 7:30pm at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Initial Reactions:

just terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible

fighting falling asleep the WHOLE time

Film Review:

I saw this film at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was my first time encountering the space, and it is really grand inside!

Oh this film was a DIFFICULT watch. I found myself fighting off sleep the whole film. This director created a film with only children, and so, worked with only child actors.

The film was riddled with monologues that were convoluted and frustrating. It is clear that the kids themselves did not connect with the material, which meant that I, watching, couldn’t connect with the material. A screenplay is only as good as the performer’s delivery, I discovered.

The whole film was made out of blocks of nonsensical imagery. I found myself profoundly disengaged with whatever the message of the film was supposed to be. I was disinterested, despondent, and disappointed.

I typically find myself loving films centering the child experience, so I was so excited to see this film at first. I love Jojo Rabbit, Mustang, C’mon C’mon, and The Florida Project dearly and impressively. I loved these films, in particular, because they were from the point of view of children undergoing a difficult experience through the eyes of their childlike wonder.

It was also quiet. Too quiet. Way too quiet. And it opened up with the most wieldy monologue that was the opposite of impassioned, unfortunately.

And yet, this film showed the opposite. It was riddled with kids being directed as adults and I found no joy, interest, nor passion in it.

I give this film a 1/5.

Romería

Dir. by Carla Simón

Starring Llúcia Garcia

Screenplay by Carla Simón

Viewed on Tues, Oct 7th at 6:15pm at the Francesca Beale Theater.

Initial Reactions:

Whimsy

Relatable — able to be real to me

Dreamy

Bright

Observant

Film Review:

Oh, Romería.

I saw this film at the Francesca Beale Theater at Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

I felt really connected to the story of a young girl looking to connect (reconnect?) with her father’s family, who it appears she hadn’t seen since her father passed away. She experienced a new family unit that was foreign to her, replete with cousins, uncles, aunts, a grandfather, and a grandmother (the clear matriarch of the family).

I, too, lost my father young and recently headed over to visit his family to reconnect with them. It really is a delicate, complicated experience with a lot of complexities and nuance.

I liked seeing how observant the protagonist, played by the eye-opening Llúcia Garcia, was of the foreign territory of her father’s family home. She spends a good amount of the film quietly observing their family dynamics. Her quietness always appeared to be intentional.

She found genuine connections with her two boy cousins close in age to her, which I enjoyed seeing. She experienced a hypercritical grandmother, and it hit close to home, the feeling of coldness and alienation from a family matriarch on my father’s side. And then, she had a specific moment with her grandfather. She was urged by her boy cousins to join them in a line to receive monetary gifts from her grandfather with all the rest of her cousins.

Her grandfather surprised her with a gift covering the tuition for the university she was applying for a scholarship to attend. There was a visceral feeling of shock from our protagonist, who did not want any money from the family she was only popping in on for a signature that would enable her to win the scholarship she had worked by herself for.

She further got to peek behind the curtain of the initially idyllic life of the fancy home and comfortable lifestyle of her father’s side of the family.

Her uncle revealed his and her father’s complicated relationship with the rest of their family. Her boy cousins let slip how his family hid her father away. She put the pieces together in realization that her father’s parents kept her father hidden, including from her, when he contracted AIDS.

Her blissful image of her parents was cracked and a dark dalliance with drugs and instability was revealed.

And so, she slipped into a dream state exploring her parents’ lives together based on bits and pieces she discovered from her father’s family.

Fascinatingly, in this dreamlike sequence, she represented her mother and her closer boy cousin represented her father.

Afterward, I got to listen to an insightful Q and A with the director, and was blessed to take a picture with her as well.

These are quotes from her answers that really stuck with me:

“I felt that my first three films are told by the new generation. Until now, I’m a second time Mom. My position in the family changed. I feel it will reflect how I feel about family. Not from the new generation perspective.”

“This idea of my parents as young people; not only as parents. Their youth; their love story.”

On the main actress: “she had never acted before. We found her on the street: she was coming back from a Boy Scouts meeting with her backpack and they said how about she come for the castings. when I saw her, I realized that she was the same kind of teenager I was.”

“She had to do two roles in one.”

“I remember I asked her; what are you afraid of? She was afraid of looking silly. And I realized that she was conscious of giving an image of innocence and curiosity. But deep down, she knew she could have something else. A stronger part.”

“This is something I kind of felt as a teenager. That my image is not exactly what I could do.”

“The natural growth was the power of imagination. The structure was very organic. Felt like going to a more dreamy territory. There’s a play of mirrors and the images. All this play between reality and fantasy for me is very rich. Trying to see my parents the way I feel them.”

What a film experience!

I enjoyed myself, while also still having some reservations about the dream sequence and the classically european explicitness between her and her cousin.

I give this film a 4/5.

Rose of Nevada

Dir. by Mark Jenkin

Starring George Mackay and Callum Turner

Screenplay by Mark Jenkin

Viewed on Fri, Oct 3rd at 8:45pm at the Museum of the Moving Image

Initial Reactions:

Spooky

I get why people love Callum Turner now

The parallels between this and 1917 for George Mackay (“we love you” “come back to us”)

The pink cap got me BAD

Callum Turner is so roguishly handsome in this like WOW

Director about Callum: “he was a movie star stuck on a tv show” WHEW

Film Review:

Listening to Weird Fishes (cover by Lianne LaHavas) while writing this review.

On paper, this film would not be my cup of tea. However, I have a penchant for watching and enjoying films starring George Mackay. Ever since seeing 1917, I have had a fondness for him and his roles.

This film screening was right after the screening for Late Fame at the Museum of the Moving Image. I got to get up, stretch my legs, pick up my ticket for this film from the box office, and then find another fantastic middle seat.

So, this film was weird. Really weird. But I surprisingly loved it! A large part is due to the character acting by George Mackay and especially Callum Turner.

A lot of the film centered around fishing. Major fishing. Large scale fishing. So, I got to see a lot of the behind the scenes of whole fishing expeditions. We got up close and personal with them.

However, this is not really a film about fishing. This is a film about being caught in a time loop, caught out of sync, caught trapped in another time.

As aforementioned, I loved George Mackay in 1917. Here, his character drew parallels for me between this film and 1917, where he played a soldier of war. In 1917, there was a point in the film, the most emotional point for me, in which he pulls out a little photograph of his wife and kid(s) he had been carrying around the whole film. Written on the back of the photograph was “Come back to us.” Similarly, in this film, while out at sea, he carried around a little note from his wife/kid that read “We love you.” He was tethered to this note. No matter where he showed up in time, this note remained in his bag still.

I discovered why people love Callum Turner so much. I had never gotten a chance to see him in action before, and in this film, I am truly enthralled by his performance. He slipped into the role of the roguish lad and I loved it. A pink cap he wears returns throughout the film and it fills me with a strong feeling of fondness due to the meaning and impact of it.

Watching the director’s Q & A about the film after was so enlightening. He described how fantastic of an actor Callum Turner was to work with. I have to keep an eye out for more of Callum Turner’s projects now!

I give this film a 4/5.

Late Fame

Dir. by Kent Jones

Starring Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, and (new-to-me) Edmund Donovan

Screenplay by Samy Burch

Viewed on Fri, Oct 3rd at 6pm at the Museum of the Moving Image

Initial Reactions:

just a critical look at pretentious new york “writers”

so much second hand cringe

manic pixie dream girl

it did remind me why i wrote and performed poetry

willem dafoe’s reading of the protagonist’s poem is far and away the best part of the film

looks like i’m back in my poetry bag now

Film Review:

This film took me by surprise. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was expecting. The film screening was at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. It was a cute experience as I had never ventured to that museum before! I like that it had a little box office where I could pick up my tickets by telling them my name. I love the little pink tickets they printed out that I get to put up on my bulletin board. Paper tickets are such a rarity nowadays so it felt good to hold the physical evidence of my time in my hands.

There was a sort of runaway to walk into the theater itself which was really cool. I was able to get my hands on popcorn first at the little concession spot before entering the theater. The greeters were also really friendly!

I love coming in for a solo film experience because I get to quickly spot a great seat (there were no assigned seats) in the middle between other groups of film goers. I settled in and got comfortable.

I love seeing Willem Dafoe on screen usually because he gives off very GILF vibe. However, in this film, he was playing someone really sad inside, which meant I couldn’t objectify him and I had to appreciate him as an actor.

The film was objectively well made. However, I wasn’t really buying what the story was selling. I realized I didn’t need another film about pretentious white men who believe they can write.

I was really looking forward to Greta Lee’s acting prowess in the film. However, I did not see the interiority to her character I would’ve loved to see it. Instead, her character felt like a projection of the men’s desires. She was fully giving off manic pixie dream girl vibes.

I will say, I was very inspired to write because it is a film about writing. I am drawn to writing and performing my poetry again. It always feels good to watch films about writers.

Willem Dafoe’s poetry recital was excellent, though. He is a true great of an actor. I was really sucked in to his performance.

I give this film a 3/5.