January 30, 2015

Live (Noboru Iguchi, 2014)

What is most impressive with Live is its infectious energy.Every death, every plot point is sacrificed to the cinematic experience.
March 22, 2010

City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002)

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 […]
March 22, 2010

Macunaïma (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)

One of the most interesting aspects of South-American cinema is its post-colonial perspective. Having lived myself and being raised in a Third-world country, I can identify and relate to the plight of South-American characters, living up to their (displaced) roots while fighting their imposed colonial heritage. I’ve seen firsthand the social stratification that the colonial rule instilled into the indigenous […]
June 3, 2011

In defence of criticism: The case of The Hangover Part II

“Most critics really don’t get it.”, as they say. I feel compelled to respond to the casual filmgoers who don't understand the critic’s perspective.
April 20, 2010

Dream (Kim Ki-duk, 2008)

Kim Ki-duk has shown he's an art-house auteur to contend with. Here, he adopts an esoteric premise, developing it as a meditation on love and passion.