Before he made arguably one of the greatest films of the 21st century, the social epic Yi Yi, Edward Yang was a hardworking auteur intent on demonstrating the beauty of his home of Taiwan. His films have risen to the point of being cinematic hallmarks, and definitive moments in Asian filmmaking. I recently, based on…

Nobody writes tortured protagonists quite like Paul Schrader. He has worked in constructing some of the most complex characters ever depicted on screen, such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, Julian Kaye in American Gigolo and Jesus Christ in The Last Temptation of Christ. Schrader is a magnificent writer…

This is quite a noteworthy review, not because of the content necessarily, but rather because of the fact that this is my 600th review, which is a revelation I am still astonished by. I normally celebrate these milestones by reviewing something special to me, possibly a favorite film or a film by a director I…

Representing life as it is could be seen as a challenge for many artists, but someone who has the insatiable capacity to understand humanity and convey his unique grasp of the human spirit is Hirokazu Kore-eda, a filmmaker I have praised on other occasions as being one of the finest filmmakers of his generation, and…

I appreciate fearlessness in the arts. I genuinely admire those who can take daring, bold moves in creating something uncomfortable, polarizing but ultimately important, as it takes a lot of courage to make something that doesn’t always fit what is normally presented as great, popular art. Two artists I have been appreciating today are filmmaker…

I first came into contact with Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever a few years ago, when a course I was doing used a famous scene from the film as an example of contemporary discourses surrounding identity, and I was immediately transfixed, even by only this one moment from the film. I have never hidden the fact…

Who doesn’t love a good period film? The splendid combination of the magnificent costumes, often scandalously entertaining plots and timely stories, they can often be guilty pleasures, films that may be superficial and not entirely representative of the period of time in which they are set – but I’ll be damned if I said I…

Cinema has the unquenchable power to convey beautiful, human stories through the most simplistic means, and independent cinema, as has already been well-established by yours truly, has been at the forefront of this kind of filmmaking, telling stories that would otherwise be forgotten or disregarded in a more mainstream context. One of the most brilliant…

This year has been a great cinematic year for me because it finally allowed me the opportunity to explore the work of some filmmakers that I have had a long-standing interest in based on their reputations and the general consensus about their work, but didn’t actually take the chance to explore for myself yet, due…

Regarding European cinema, there are few contemporary filmmakers that interest me as much as Pedro Costa, the great Portuguese filmmaker who has a reputation for meaningful, complex films that show a different side of his country. Not only do I feel a patriotic connection to him based on our shared cultural background, I consider him…