Benediction (2021)

Benediction (2021) was British director Terence Davies’ final film before he died in 2023. Experiencing it after recently seeing his first film, Distant Voices, Still Lives, was very interesting with their intersections. Distant Voices, Still Lives is an autobiography by Davies of his family growing up in working class Liverpool. In contrast, Benediction is a […]

The Grandmaster (2013)

I can’t remember much of a cinema release for Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (2013); it felt like its mixed reception resulted in an underwhelming reputation. Unexpectedly a martial arts movie for fans of Wong Kar-wai’s arthouse melodramas, it might have been too much of an arthouse melodrama for fans of martial arts movies. I was […]

Naked Lunch (1991)

I think I tried reading William S. Burroughs once borrowing books from the uni library, but it didn’t take; I mainly think of him for his acting role in Drugstore Cowboy and his distinctive voice. So finally sitting to experience Naked Lunch (1991), I was more connecting with it as a David Cronenberg film rather […]

Uncle Yanco (1967)

Thank you to Mubi’s ‘Voila Varda’ segment, which sadly expired on their Library feature, and to Lyndon Blue for recommending Uncle Yanco (1967), a short film that Agnes Varda made while she was in San Francisco (while her husband Jacques Demy was making Model Shop). It’s basically a colourful, warm tribute to Agnes connecting with […]

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

For me, Dolemite Is My Name (2019) was a good time. I was predisposed to like it because of the writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. They wrote one of my favourite movies, Ed Wood, and the easy comparison was that this was a Blaxploitation version of that biopic. There’s a similar structure with supporting […]