Look back: A vintage that gets better with age: a celebration of ‘Jennifer’s Body’ 10 years later

Originally posted August 16, 2019. Google “Jennifer’s Body” and let the panning of 2009 begin, from the in–the–gutter critic reviews to the 44% Rotten Tomatoes score. Go on Letterboxd (a site for film geeks like myself who write their own reviews), and you will read passionate, glowing reviews from over […]

Look back: ‘Moonlight’: removing the physical armour

“Moonlight” (2016) is a poetic and universal tale. It is a coming-of-age story for everyone who has every questioned “Who am I?” The central character in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s story is a Black American young man in Miami, yet he is also all of us, in all locations of this world growing up and coming to terms with our unique identities and surroundings.

I can’t understand

Both willingly and unwillingly, Yance and so many others have done so much emotional labor to tell us their stories and relive their trauma, all to reveal to us the racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia, and overall hatred that still exists and causes unfathomable pain, and it’s our job and responsibility to pay attention.

The burden of heartbreak

When the lights in “Strong Island” (2017) begin to dim and the credits start to roll, the viewer is left with an echo of a scream ringing intensely in their ears. Director and filmmaker Yance Ford has just spoken with the District Attorney in charge […]

Enchanted by the Details

I don’t know about you, but I get chills by the intimacy of the details. Her films vary in story, but no matter what the story is about—a seventeenth-century queen, spoiled teenagers in Hollywood, a middle-aged celebrity traveling in Tokyo—I know that I’m going to be enchanted by the artistry of the cinematic details that bring me deeper.