The Killer (1989)

I remember first watching The Killer (1989) thanks to SBS Cult Movie night as well as renting a VHS version with a terrible English dub. Reviving the Dragon Dynasty DVD I owned of this Hong Kong action classic directed and written by John Woo, it was a pleasure to revisit. When I was younger, much […]

Snake Eyes (1998)

I saw Snake Eyes (1998) at the cinema when I was a teenager and enjoyed it then. Over time my love for it has grown alongside my appreciation for both Nicolas Cage as an actor and Brian De Palma as a filmmaker, and I truly think it’s an underrated collaboration. While in contrast to De […]

China Girl (1987)

I knew going in that this was director Abel Ferrara’s version of Romeo and Juliet. But China Girl (1987) feels more like an updated West Side Story. There’s a MTV energy in this night-time, neon-lit, wet-sidewalked vision of New York with young gangs clattering down darkened alleyways, climbing up chain-linked fences. At one point, a […]

Pusher III (2005)

By the third entry in the Pusher series, there’s an assumed narrative trajectory and familar story pattern: the camera follows the protagonist as they slowly start to get in over their heads with deals and debts. Yet it’s interesting across the three movies how the tone is still uniquely set by the lead character and […]

Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

Often good acting is equated to external tics and Denzel Washington’s performance in Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017) is a barrage of choices. The glasses, the fro, the gap in his teeth, the bow-legged walk, and so on. There are a lot of choices to create this character but I thought they were deeply felt […]