March 22, 2010
A reviewer compared City of God to Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) and many parallels could be made between the two. As they both fall into the genre of gangster films, they depict violence in a raw, uninhibited way, in a realist fashion. City of God, with its documentary-style aesthetic—camera shakes, voice-over narration, etc., uses that realism to emphasize its story’s […]
April 2, 2014
The highlight of 12 Years a Slave is Steve McQueen’s direction. The arresting scenes of the film are the moments of sheer beauty.
March 22, 2010
It was a pleasant surprise to see Alice doesn’t live here anymore. Is it a feminist film? Can a male filmmaker look at a woman through a female perspective?
November 24, 2010
I’ve heard good things about the Korean film, A Frozen Flower. Outside from the gorgeous production value and box-office success, it has also been heralded for its inclusion of homosexuality in a period setting. I was hoping I would get to see it at this year’s festival and was glad to see it on the schedule, even if for only […]
November 26, 2010
A federal agent meets a spy, Ji-won, who had escaped from North Korea, they play a game of cat-and-mouse, keeping an eye on one another.