Quite rattled by this, possibly one of the best new-ish films I’ve seen in a long while. With screen-life movies, I often find myself admiring their aesthetics yet the exclusive focus on the virtual also leaves me emotionally detached. What sets Red Rooms apart is the way it expands beyond the edges of the screen by building a continuous visual link between the online realm and the “real” world. The spaces that Juliette Gariépy’s obsessive protagonist occupies—modern sky-high flats, swanky…

It seems an extraordinary coincidence that Tokyo Sonata was released in Japan in September 2008, the exact same month as the "Lehman shock," which worsened the country's already stagnant economy. A year after the crash, the number of unemployment claimants would increase by a whooping million. The sense of emasculation and the loss of authority endured by the film's patriarch also reflects a nation in flux, as talks of globalization and American dominance hover in the background. This kind of…

It’s fascinating that almost none of the current crop of Asian-American filmmakers cite Wayne Wang as either an influence or a predecessor. This perhaps explains why Asian-American cinema is in such a dire state. Chan Is Missing came out some 40 odd years ago, yet it feels so audacious and dynamic, in a way that makes me feel like we’re going backwards when it comes to that knotty question of “representation.” Wang's film doesn’t trade in cheap points of relatability,…