NOMADLAND is a film about people above anything else. It cuts like a person, absorbs like a person, observes like a person, and moves like a person. To experience Zhao’s latest is to experience the feeling of sitting still while uncontrollably moving forward. It uses those rare pauses and moments of relief in life to their fullest potential.

This is an incomparable piece of work that exists in its own bubble. A bubble gently floating through the air ready to pop but living in complete tranquility while it still can. This will only get better with time.

So violent and so innocent. I honestly can’t remember if Araki had this many shots of characters looking directly into the camera in his other work but that choice is working stronger than ever here. What I really appreciate about this is how he’s capturing the manipulation in all forms of abuse. His use of shoegaze also does so much as far as romanticizing not these specific events but adolescence. I just felt very close to Neil by the end, as though I was one of those little moons orbiting around him. I'll never forget about this movie.

*Borat voice*
“My son!”

To everyone who shat on this and convinced me to shit on it without ever having seen it, cmon man. Fun time and aside from a (sorta) cheesy ending, this has aged better than it should have. I miss how awful 2013 was.

You ever find yourself staring at a bonfire? Just zoning out and watching the flame change every second, feeling the heat, the energy, the anger, the tension, you get what I’m saying. It’s a beautifully hypnotic thing, and that’s exactly what Portrait of a Lady on Fire is. The only difference being that this brought me to tears in ways a bonfire never could.

Our expectations were high but HOLY FUCK