There’s no place like home. Growing up near San Francisco, I visited the city countless times and spent a substantial amount of my childhood in the area. Seeing films such as this and Blindspotting in recent years have been rewarding and nostalgic experiences. Even more so than Blindspotting, The Last Black Man in San Francisco perfectly captures the essence and inherently personal sense of wonder which encapsulate the Bay Area.
It is noteworthy that some of the films inspiring this…
Oshima crafts unassailable parallels between his protagonist Jack Celliers and Jesus Christ. He accomplishes this on a meta level ranging from them sharing the initials JC to the most prominent line (and title) of the film, celebrating the Birth of Christ. Celliers is portrayed as a messianic figure able to seemingly disarm his enemies and uplift the humanity of his troops with impunity. Remembering this parallel is important to contextualizing the film’s deconstruction of masculinity, ranging from the abstract considerations…
Raj Kapoor made Awaara 70 years ago to denigrate the corrupt and capitalist system he lived under, exposing the cyclical nature of both poverty and privilege. 70 years later and we've made marginal progress, if any at all. Nothing has changed and the neoliberal fallacies of progress and reform and principles are just that, fallacies.
As the second person in my family to be born in the West (America), I have always been fascinated with the ontological conditions of immigration and assimilation into a new culture. This was primarily the lens I experienced Minari through, and I found it to be unflinchingly genuine.
We first see the experience of the beginning of a new life. The initial feeling of sleeping on the floor while unpacking your identity and culture into a literal and metaphysical new…
“I don’t NEED a weapon! I AM the weapon.”
I have to start this review by thanking Neil Breen for screening this movie in theaters. This was, by far, the best theatrical experience of my lifetime. Rancorous eruptions of laughter followed by audible gasps of shock ensued throughout the entirety of the runtime.
Twisted Pair, for those of you who had doubts over its intention, is a classic Neil Breen film. The same stilted dialogue, unnatural acting, and use of…
Do The Right Thing portrays a sweltering New York day for virtually the entirety of its runtime. Due to the nature of the film, this is also prone to some sweltering takes, let’s discuss the brilliance of Do The Right Thing for those who may have missed it.
The first thing one notices about this film is the camerawork. Suffocating in one scene to all-encompassing and vast in the other. Stagnant and static in one scene to rapid and sudden…
