Movie Review: The Age of Shadows

The Age of Shadows seems to operate on two fronts, the first as a war epic—both sweeping and compact—of chases, gunfights and espionage, used as much for dramatic interplay as it is cloak and dagger. The second is a melodrama of…

TIFF Review: La La Land

For more TIFF 2016 coverage, go here. Time melts away while watching Damien Chazelle’s latest, La La Land about the nature of being an artist, dating a fellow performer and how dreams and expectations are hard won and that perspective too is…

Movie Review: Independence Day: Resurgence

Since Independence Day became a massive commercial hit Roland Emmerich seems to have consistently invented new ways to fetishize the end of the world. Indeed he does a good enough job capturing an apocalyptic spectacle of carnage and destruction but,…

Movie Review: ‘The Boy and the Beast’

Mamoru Hosoda is one of the few anime directors making films that connect widely with an international audience; this is especially true since Studio Ghibli’s departure. How else can I describe The Boy and the Beast other than anime reclaiming…

Movie Review: ‘Sunset Song’

The title Sunset Song is ironic, considering that the film’s heroine is only just entering adulthood, wouldn’t sunrise be a more suitable prefix? This sweeping epic of a woman’s challenging and liberating journey through rural patriarchy bears a premise reminiscent of…

Movie Review: ‘April and the Extraordinary World’

One of the popular aesthetic movements in fiction is steampunk, a genre mash-up of Vernian science fiction and Victorian culture. In the field of speculative fiction, however, this is also one of the most lacklustre genres. Its conceptual premise always…