After fleeing from her abusive husband Gary (Ian Lloyd Anderson), a young Irish mother named Sandra (Clare Dunne) reconstructs her life by DIY-building her own house for her two children in Phyllida Lloyd’s (known for Mamma Mia! and Iron Lady) third and recent empowering film Herself. Dunne, who also wrote the film, gracefully embodied her… Continue reading ‘Herself’: An Empathetic, Cinematic Manual for Self-Builders
Pixar goes meta by successfully merging philosophy and jazz to create a vibrant and soul-warming animated feature film called Soul, its most ambitious work to date. Released last Christmas on Disney+, Soul gave the perfect holiday gift of existential bliss (and crisis) to its viewers. The film follows a jazz pianist named Joe Gardner (voiced… Continue reading ‘Soul’ is a near-death (and near-life) experience
Yorgos Lanthimos has this eerily satisfying way of creating a dystopian atmosphere around the concepts of human behavior. If you have been following his work, you know how he can effortlessly bend his audience and turn them into hollow but enlightened souls just as the credits roll. If you have an affinity for dark comedies… Continue reading ‘Nimic’: Mimicry at Its Most Discomforting
Sine Liwanag 