If I could explain why it hits as deep as it hits then I wouldn’t be human. But I can try. Maybe the hurt is in me; maybe it’s in the film. But the cut is deeper and it calls out to something that cannot help but respond. Maybe it’s all because I am the literal age of these kids. I was also 14-15 in 1999-2001. I have many shared experiences. I can relate to the bullying, the safe haven…

There is a risk in both the simplicity and the historical context of any snapshot of modern life. Focusing on simple people in a specific place and time can create a myopic view of life that conflates mundanity with meaning. It can falsely lionize the “common man” without ever discovering deeper truths that extend beyond the specifics. Yi Yi overcomes those risks through Edward Yang’s deep humanism and relenting honesty. There is another risk, however, that can defeat even the…

It's pride month and what's not to love about a movie where a mentally ill cross-dressing ex-soldier goes on a hunt for three twinks who—literally—are trying to transform into his dead ex-boyfriend all-the-while he's helped by his ex-girlfriend and the ghost of his other ex-boyfriend and his dead almost-girlfriend (who is also the ex-girlfriend of the other ex-boyfriend), a muscle daddy, a bisexual vampire and a talking cat?!

Well, I do not like egregious, brain dead fan service so that's…

For all the "uncanny valley" complaints this looks pretty good and has aged very well visually. It's certainly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the better regarded 2001 computer animated films—a difficult feat given it is human focused. Perhaps it benefits from how much worse some of the animation in later Square stuff is (hello Advent Children). If there's any visual issue it's that the film is almost entirely dark, boring generic sci-fi stuff and little of the creative flair the games are…

Order of Merit: Sound

This film ruined itself for me. There are aspects that are genius, including much of the last hour. I take issue with some of the structure, including the poor decision to include a second musical number after the iconic gym scene, but there is a lot to like here.

My issue is the two major acts of violence in the film completely drown everything else (pun intended). The first is maybe OK given it is taken…

Look only at that last dance and you know all you need to know. It’s just three minutes combining two scenes and one song. It’s the oldest of concepts, doing what every film student tries to do: craft a montage summarizing the film and speaking all of the truths without revealing any of the answers. But it is so perfect, so precise and so powerful that it immediately enters into the recent canon of greatest final sequences. Charlotte Wells could…