Reviews

Kirsten Stewart’s biographical film The Chronology of Water (2025), based on Lidia Yuknavitch's work, captures Yuknavitch’s memory as she navigates trauma, sexuality, love, family, and writing. Memory is presented as ocean waves, colliding and roaring. Until Lidia can come to terms with the water of memory, she will be lost. Here, water takes on new and multiple meanings: life and death, breath and drowning, time and memory, filth and cleansing. The story is based on Lidi

In an age where horror films need to continuously compete to meet the growing standards of an actual “scary movie”, the film Primate takes the traditional template of a horror movie whilst adding its own unique spin, with a killer ape named Ben. Nicole Au picks apart the various aspects of this movie in this review, attempting to see how Primate stands on its own and in the bigger scheme of the horror genre.

La La Land is the film for the yearners, with Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) being the epitome for “right person wrong time.” La La Land is captivating in its lively dance scenes and nostalgic usage of technicolor. However, Nicole Au calls into question if this film effectively portrays a deep, painful, love story or if the stunning cinematography is just the shell of meaningless, forgettable plot.

The heartwarming success story of Chris Gardner as portrayed in Gabriele Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) carries an overtly ideological message, promulgating a comforting yet dangerous illusion—a perfect capitalist meritocracy.

This review of the documentary Martha: A Picture Story argues that the film transcends biography, using archival footage, interviews, and cinema verité to present photographer Martha Cooper’s work as an ethical act of “rehumanization.” The review also contends that director Selina Miles crafts a powerful manifesto on the politics of looking, challenging viewers to see dignity and art in marginalized spaces and to question ingrained cultural hierarchies.

In this review, Alicia Bai explores Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo as a study of psychological destabilization through visual form. Focusing on camera techniques, lighting, and colour, she demonstrates how Hitchcock immerses viewers in the protagonist’s obsessive descent into madness. While acknowledging structural weaknesses in the film’s conclusion, Bai ultimately positions Vertigo as a defining work of cinematic art.

A review of Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, a minimalist, tragicomic twist on the heist genre, following Josh O’Connor as an apathetic family man whose amateur art theft slowly falls apart.

The ivory tower of cuisine comes alive in Brad Bird’s Ratatouille. Remy the rat, under the tutelage of the spirit of the late Chef Gusteau, attempts to find the key, but what will it take for the world to welcome its most unconventional chef?