John David Washington stars as The Protagonist in director Christopher Nolan’s Tenet
Retro Review / Personal Essay by Noah Thompson
When I saw Tenet for a second time, in December from the comfort of my home, it brought me back to the darkest period of my life.
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Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tōko Miura star in director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car
Review / Personal Essay by Logan Kenny
I will never forget the sound of her voice. I will forget a million other things as I grow older but that is not one of them. Because it will always be there when I need to hear it, even when she’s been gone for longer than she was alive. That’s one of the fundamental reasons I immediately connected with Drive My Car.
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Retro Review / Personal Essay by Michael O’Malley
Noah, the 2014 oddball Biblical fantasy epic, directed by Aronofsky, has stuck with me. It won’t let me go, nor will the notion go away that the film’s semi-forgotten, oddball status belies that Noah is not only Aronofsky’s masterpiece but also the defining faith film of the past couple decades.
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From left to right: Elliot Gould, Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, and Dyan Cannon star respectively as Ted, Carol, Bob, and Alice in director Paul Mazursky’s radical relationship dramedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Retro Review / Personal Essay by Ren
The beautiful thing that Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice highlights about polyamory is the necessity of radical honesty in relationships.
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Review / Personal Essay by Paige Taylor
It is important to showcase the grim reality of the cross that women bear, but the only solution we can offer is to lose every bit of your soul to grief and rage, die at the hands of abusers, and allow our judicial system to handle the rest?
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Adèle Haenel and Pauline Acquart star in director Céline Sciamma’s debut Water Lilies
Retro Review / Personal Essay by Paige Taylor
I wish I could sit teenagers down and give them all the wisdom I learned the hard way, answer all the questions they’re too embarrassed to say out loud, and assure them that their road to adulthood might feel shitty and weird but that is 100% expected and normal. There is beauty in this adventure too. Céline Sciamma clearly feels the same way.
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Adepero Oduye and Aasha Davis star in director Dee Rees’s Pariah
Retro Review by Courtney Anderson
Pariah is of the few coming-of-age stories that centers a Black girl, and one of the very few coming-of-age stories that centers a queer person. Pariah ended up being a godsend for me.
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Brad Pitt stars in director James Gray’s long-awaited Ad Astra
Review / Personal Essay by Logan Kenny
There’s a comfort in knowing that there have been people like me before, in fiction and in reality, desperate for something to cling onto as everything glides through the stars. James Gray’s work behind the camera and the emotional depth he gives his characters has always been remarkable, but the confidence and patience he has here is transcendent.
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Shannon Purser and Noah Centineo star in director Ian Samuels’s Sierra Burgess is a Loser
Review / Personal Essay by Courtney Anderson
I’m always waiting for the movie where there’s a fat girl that actually does have a love interest, or at least isn’t spending the entire movie commiserating her weight. Which is what I thought Sierra Burgess Is A Loser would be. And it wasn’t. At all.
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Personal Essay / Review by Paige Taylor
This dumb musical was so infectiously joyful that I’ve been addicted to its euphoria since I’ve watched it. I have listened to ABBA every single day since. I have run to my car to get to work and blasted "Chiquitita" with the eagerness of someone who’s just discovered a love for crack. I am deep in this blissed out state of 70’s Swedish pop band delirium and honestly? I do not care to escape.
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Tragedy Girls was one of the ten feature films screened at the 2017 Knoxville Horror Film Festival.
Personal Essay by Jessica Carr
After the three days were over, I was left with one question. Am I officially a horror fan now?
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Alex Hippert stars as "Little" in director Barry Jenkins's Moonlight
Personal Essay by Courtney Anderson
I have to be honest and say that I don’t believe in total “universality” of films, especially not Moonlight. Chiron’s narrative is one that is so often ignored that the idea that “everyone” can find themselves in him confuses me. But I know Chiron.
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Personal Essay by John McAmis
It’s a harsh truth, but any human who testifies that they enjoy being alone is lying.
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Emily Watson and Adam Sandler star in director Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love
Personal Essay / Retro Review by Andrew Swafford
Last month, I got engaged--and it has got me thinking about one of my personal favorite love stories.
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Min-hee Kim and Kim Tae-ri play a Japanese heiress and a pickpocket hired as her handmaiden in Director Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden
Review / Personal Essay by Paige Taylor
Warning: Review contains spoilers
This was the sapphic delight I've wished for for so long.
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Ralph Fiennes and Art Parkinson star in Kubo and the Two Strings
Personal Essay / Review by Jessica Carr
(Read original review by Andrew Swafford here)
When I was sitting next to my parents watching Kubo and the Two Strings play out, I couldn’t help but let the tears fall from the corners of my eyes. This was a story that resonated with me so closely.
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