71st SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL — State Theatre (Guest Screening + Q&A)

9/10

Like any good son, I pull my father out
of the water, drag him by his hair
   
through white sand, his knuckles carving a trail
the waves rush in to erase. Because the city
   
beyond the shore is no longer
where we left it. Because the bombed
   
cathedral is now a cathedral
of trees. I kneel beside him to see how far…

6.5/10

(EDIT 3/2: Replaced the previous Charlotte Wells quote with a new one that more directly connects to the Tarkovsky passage below — hope this reads better!)

“Generally people's memories are precious to them. It is no accident that they are coloured by poetry. The most beautiful memories are those of childhood. Of course memory has to be worked upon before it can become the basis of an artistic reconstruction of the past; and here it is important not to…

Sadly had to leave after Part One on account of work tomorrow morning (not to mention, travelling to/from home for this festival has been an ordeal — programmers need to make Arthouse accessible to Western Sydney, posthaste!). However this really was beautiful to watch so far ♥️ will promise to finish this and review in full once this gets released somewhere. I guess that means I left SFF unfinished / it lives on forever etc etc!

(Not a fan of…

Kind of perfect to watch this just as I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of the personal essay these past couple months — what it means to explore the first-person “I” beyond the self by extending itself towards the world, in this case exploring the dissolution of Icelandic glaciers through personal heritage and grief.

A work such as this takes on an essayistic approach that doesn’t absorb in its own solipsism. Rather, the “I” here fragments itself by way of…

70TH SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL — Ritz Cinemas

5.5/10

I don’t enjoy criticising Asian diaspora stories, especially when they appeal to a mainstream audience and connect to lived Asian experiences, but I can’t help but feel let down by Past Lives. Rather than interrogating the displacement of Asian identities through romance, instead we’re given entry-level samples into such enquiries. Nothing about the film had anything substantial to say about the Korean experience, or even the Asian diasporic experience for that matter.…

4.5/10

(Long review, read with caution)

I’m uncomfortable. This film has two things that I take to heart: anti-capitalist “content” and Filipino representation. If you found yourself enjoying Dolly De Leon’s character, I especially need you to read this. It doesn’t matter if you’re Filipino or not. As a Filipino-Australian viewer, there is one thing that’s biting me ever since Filipinos have been raving all over De Leon’s character, and I think it’s about time that it needs to be…