Film reviews.
CINEMATIC HALO-HALO: MAGICAL REALISM AND METACINEMA IN LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE – Martika Ramirez Escobar’s debut feature Leonor Will Never Die received a standing ovation during its Philippine premiere (which the filmmakers refer to as their “local luwal”) on the opening night of Cinemalaya 18 last August 05, 2022. The atmosphere inside the Cultural Center …
Quo Vadis, Aida?, the Bosnian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, gives light to the events leading up to the 1995 Srebrenica genocide which resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. The protagonist is the titular Aida, a translator for the UN trapped in the center …
Ivory Coast’s third submission to the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category is like a fairy tale. But for a film that highlights an actual fairy tale story as the cream of its plot, Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings (La Nuit des rois) works best when you focus on the ritual of storytelling rather than the …
Riders of Justice pushes its synthesis that a chain of trivial causes can lead to events happening in the grandest of scales by having its plot elements emerge out of the blue. If that’s ironic, it is. Coming from an initial stance that causality is true, the film in its point of crisis flirted with the …
Dagupan City, Philippines — “Has anyone seen Piano?” Lemongrass Girl follows the story of a young production assistant named Piano who is assigned to plant lemongrass daily to prevent rain from disrupting their filming process. This ritual, reserved for virgins, is a common practice in Thailand, especially on film sets. While she takes on this …
Lemongrass Girl (2021) and Ritualistic Restrictions Read More »
