What The Hidden does so well with its body horror concepts is not only the way it’s implemented but also how and why. With any other direction, this could’ve still been a fun B movie that maybe leans more towards the horror and action than the science fiction and thriller. However, the tone here is deadly serious, and it’s because of this that the entity’s absurd actions are given meaning. The entity or alien could very well control and dominate…

Final Cut:

"You might be mere criminals, but you understand the psyche better than police."

One of the great strengths of watching so many movies and especially writing and reading reviews about them is developing a deep appreciation for intertextuality. When you watch something and immediately notice the direct and latent connections between other works of cinema and art in general, it goes beyond shallow comparisons. You start to observe the filmmaking a little differently as well as the story…

Starring, written, edited, directed, and choreographed by Lorenz Hideyoshi, Night Shift is a perfect encapsulation of what these fight choreographers can achieve both on and off screen. Mostly known for serving as Timothée Chalamet’s stunt double in Dune: Part Two, as well as a concept illustrator and 3D artist for numerous projects, Hideyoshi sets his sights on filmmaking with this short. He delivers an interesting premise before presenting some exhilarating fights, all within a span of just 11 minutes.

A…

This is like Eyes Wide Shut but for either middle aged white women who fantasize these types of scenarios even though they have 3 children and a husband at home (the average demographic at my screening for this movie) OR for people who missed all the subtext in Kubrick’s film and needed explicit sex scenes to fully understand what the film is saying even though EWS is significantly more freaky with significantly less sex scenes. Oh who am I kidding?…

The inverse of PTA's Magnolia. Vignettes concerning key characters whose perspectives and conflicts — both internal and external — are shown, all interconnected in the overarching mystery. Each story circles around another person's story, overlapping and folding, presenting new perspectives and key information sometimes hinted at prior but then recontextualized, inching closer and closer to the film's bombastic final act. Each story is a cycle: an introduction of a character, particularly during a crisis; failure of self-medication; an attempt to…