Tag Archives: Filmmaking

My First Film (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Memories of her abandoned first film

As watching Zia Anger’s fascinating feature film “My First Film”, I frequently wondered how much it actually reflects Anger’s life and career in real life. Yes, she did make her little first feature film “Always All Way, Anne Marie” between … Continue reading

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MaXXXine (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Maxine goes to Hollywood…

Ti West’s latest film “MaXXXine”, the third installment of West’s X film series after “X” (2022) and “Pearl” (2022), is willing to go further from what was modestly but impressively achieved in its two predecessors. It surely has a lot … Continue reading

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The Book of Solutions (2023) ☆☆(2/4): Annoyingly whimsical

Michel Gondry’s latest film “The Book of Solutions” somehow annoyed me more than expected. While this is another typically whimsical piece of work from Gondry, it is sometimes difficult to watch its rather obnoxious hero behaving like your typical narcissistic … Continue reading

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A Brighter Tomorrow (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A angry and bitter Moretti movie

Nanni Moretti’s latest film “A Brighter Tomorrow” is unusually angry and bitter compared to many of Moretti’s mild and gentle works such as “Caro diario” (1993). As a seasoned filmmaker who does not approve much of the current cinema trends, … Continue reading

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The Fall Guy (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The adventure of one stuntman

“The Fall Guy”, which is incidentally released as “The Stuntman” in South Korean theaters (I hope that local audiences will not mistake it for the remake of Richard Rush’s “The Stunt Man” (1979), by the way), has a lot of … Continue reading

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The Four Daughters (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The reenactment of a family pain

Kaouther Ben Hania’s latest work “The Four Daughters”, which was recently nominated for Best Documentary Oscar (It was also selected as the Tunisian submission to Best International Film Oscar, by the way), presents one painful family story via a plain … Continue reading

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No Bears (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Another interesting work from Jafar Panahi

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s latest film “No Bears”, which won the Special Jury Prize when it was premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, is fascinating for how the director willingly pushes his artistic vision further despite lots of … Continue reading

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Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): How he made it

William Friedkin, who sadly left us a few months ago, has always been associated with “The Exorcist” (1973), one of the iconic classic horror films in the 1970s. To be frank with you, I was not so scared when I … Continue reading

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8 1/2 (1963) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): A filmmaker in chaotic crisis

Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2” is your average navel-gazing piece of work, but it is surely one of the best ones of its kind in addition to being the groundbreaking one. While having been emulated so much by numerous subsequent films … Continue reading

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Cobweb (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): One crazy filmmaking day

South Korean film “Cobweb”, which finally arrived in South Korean movie theaters yesterday after being shown at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, is about one crazy filmmaking day to watch. Although it stumbles from time to time … Continue reading

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