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Reviews


The Mastermind: A Review
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.
Mar 74 min read


When the Critic Eats: The Taste of Humility in Ratatouille
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?
Feb 257 min read


Wes Anderson, Seeing Like a State, and the Triumph of the Particular
This article attempts to analyze Wes Anderson’s work through the lens of James C. Scott’s 1998 book Seeing Like A State, using Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme to try to understand auteurship as a form of quasibureaucratic control, a form of control that these films, despite their pervasive stylization, subtly yet consistently undermine. Many have accused Anderson of retreating into pure mannerism, but these films can be read as dramatizations of resistance to their ow
Feb 119 min read


When Time is Running Out, Name Your Dog Caramelo
Welcoming the New Year with finals behind, Caramelo prompts the usage of troupes and the future of storytelling with its own comedic and sensitive uniqueness. Whether it be a statement piece or a slapstick comedy, it’s important to experience films that remind us of the beauty and transformation of film.
Jan 196 min read


Ray’s Top 10 for 2025
2025 marks the fourth year of what has now become an annual tradition: agonizing over the list, caught between performativity and pure dopamine. A few things are different this time. The industry, ever more so, is tasked with answering the existential questions regarding the ethical use of generative videos, mergers, box-office numbers, and perhaps most importantly of all, the role of advocacy cinema in the current zeitgeist, where paranoia and distrust for the government and
Dec 31, 202510 min read


Step Aside "Elf": A Ranking of All the "Love Actually" Storylines
Every year without fail, Love Actually makes its way onto every list of classic movies to watch during the Christmas season. The film uses the overarching theme of holiday romance to bring together nine carefully crafted love stories. While Nicole Au can undoubtedly agree that this film is the perfect Christmas movie, she does an in-depth examination of each storyline to determine which ones deserve more praise than others (and to spark lively debate amongst other die-hard Lo
Dec 21, 202511 min read


The Movie that Pulled Off the Greatest Plot Twist in Movie History
This article argues that Primal Fear is one of cinema’s most overlooked twist-driven thrillers. The movie follows defense attorney Martin Vail as he defends a timid altar boy, Aaron Stampler (played by none other than Edward Norton), who appears incapable of murder. As Vail’s investigation unfolds throughout the course of the movie, the film reveals layers of church abuse, legal manipulation, and moral ambiguity. Nicole Au argues that Primal Fear deserves far more recognition
Dec 5, 20254 min read


Revisiting Costa-Gavras’s Z: The Politics of Storytelling
This piece explores how Costa-Gavras’s Z treats politics not merely as a clash of physical power, but as a fight for narrative control. In Z, the struggle to explain an event becomes a struggle to define reality. Its ending, in withholding any sense of resolution, is what makes the film feel disturbingly modern.
Nov 30, 20254 min read
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