Category
Long-form explorations of film theory, cultural politics, and the hidden language of cinema.
One thing that sets apart stories by men filmmakers from stories by women filmmakers is that female characters from the latter speak their own language, one that transcends the fickleness of words. Director Eliza Hittman constructs silence as its own form of communication.
This film, like sex, is ultimately about power. Sofia cultivates her image of the perfect cool girl, using hedonism as her entryway into a gatekept affluent world — and Naïma watches, learns, and begins to question everything.
Film piracy is often dismissed as mere theft — but for many Filipinos, it was the only gateway into world cinema. A reckoning with access, class, and who gets to be a cinephile.
The aswang has long haunted Philippine folklore — but in recent cinema, it has migrated to the city. An essay on how contemporary Filipino filmmakers weaponize myth to speak about modern anxieties.
There's a great scene in the final season of Atypical where Casey decides to quit track and drop out of Clayton. In that moment — pure freedom. An essay on what the show teaches about identity, belonging, and self-determination.
Christmas films seek to bring hope in hopeless times — and sometimes the best vehicle for that is an action film. The inspirational power of genre and spectacle in the holiday season.
After Julia Ducournau's Titane won the Palme d'Or, body horror is gaining resurgence within mainstream audiences. What does our fixation on how far human bodies can endure say about contemporary culture?