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70 Light

Carrie (1976): Making misunderstood women feel seen.

Before watching Brian De Palma's Carrie, I wrongly assumed it would be a campy horror film from the 70's that I would soon forget. Post viewing, I felt empathy and anger, but most importantly I felt seen. Surprisingly, the film was written by a man (Stephen King) but is a powerful portrait of what it's like to be a young woman; an outcasted one at that. The story follows Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), a shy girl in her senior year of high school who is brutally bullied by students and tormented by

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Carrie (1976): Making misunderstood women feel seen.

68 Light

There Will Never Be a Film Like Akira

As someone who runs an anime review account, it feels almost sacrilegious to admit this, but I only recently watched Akira. Yes, the 1988 Akira. The one that’s practically the backbone of every anime, history, documentary, and cyberpunk fan’s mood board. I held out for years, despite all the peer pressure and persistent recommendations from friends and strangers alike. And now, having finally seen it? I feel like I've finally found something I've spent decades looking for. But my hesitation wasn

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52 Light

Why Are Mexican Directors in Love with Canoa?

Horror film, sociopolitical documentary, thriller, historical reconstruction, all wrapped up in non-linear storytelling. This is how Alfonso Cuarón tries to explain all the pieces at play in Felipe Cazals' Canoa: A Shameful Memory. The 1976 Mexican film is, as you can see, hard to describe. And that's only the form. When you go down into the content, things get more complex. The film is a cornerstone of Mexican cinema. Incredibly well-regarded in its time, beloved by the famous directors working

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Why Are Mexican Directors in Love with Canoa?

52 Light

RoboCop Punched Me in the Mouth and I Thanked It

Earlier this year, I finally crossed RoboCop off my watchlist. Not for lack of opportunity — it’s been staring at me for years as I’ve leisurely been working my way through Paul Verhoeven’s filmography — but because I’m the kind of viewer who waits for the right moment. As it turns out, that moment was me coughing up half a lung on my couch — recovering from pneumonia — drugged out on decongestants, tea, edibles, and buried beneath mountain of blankets while my roommate was out watching The Wild

42 Light

Tokyo Pop Still Rocks

Angry and heartbroken after her ex-boyfriend and former band leader betrayed her, Wendy (Carrie Hamilton), a talented post-punk New York singer, gets a letter from a friend who's been living in Tokyo and then decides to travel to Japan. Once she arrives there, her friend has suddenly moved to China, and Wendy doesn't speak Japanese and has no money to go back home. So she ends up staying at a hostel for gaijin and starts working as a hostess at a karaoke bar. Back in the U.S., at the height of t

42 Light

'Up in the Air', a profound movie under a light facade.

Up in the Air (2009) is a –seemingly– light comedy with serious overtones, yet it is far deeper and more thoughtful than it appears. I didn't pay attention to it at the time, probably because of its appearance, but now I think it's a fantastic film that is well worth seeing. Its protagonist, Ryan Bingham (played thoroughly by George Clooney), is a breath of fresh air in a sea of Hollywood monotony. Ryan defies all clichés and lives in a way that many people find inexplicable. He is forty years o

40 Light

The lost message of "It's A Wonderful Life"

It's A Wonderful Life by Frank Capra, considered by most to be a wholesome, family friendly staple of the American Christmastime movie canon, was once under investigation by the FBI for potentially being ‘Communist Propaganda'. Here is an excerpt from the report: “In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [Redacted] related that if he had made this pictu

37 Light

Rediscovering The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as an Adult

I have a lot in common with Austin Butler. We are both Academy Award nominated actors, have dated models, and have acted in films directed by Quentin Tarantino, Denis Villeneuve, and Ari Aster. No need to fact check any of this. Most importantly though, we have a deep and personal childhood connection to Sergio Leone’s film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Released in 1966, the epic spaghetti Western film was marketed as the third installment in the Dollars Trilogy, which all star Clint Eastwood.

37 Light

THEY LIVE WARNED US IN '88: NOW YOU NEED THOSE SUNGLASSES TO SEE THE HIDDEN TRUTH.

I'm known for appreciating hidden cinematic gems—films that are more than superficial, often lacking significant marketing upon their release (like this one from 1988). Instead, they gained traction through word-of-mouth and possess a substance that resonates with our current reality, prompting reflection on our lives amidst ruthless consumerism. I have a special knack for finding rare films that spark the imagination with possibilities; and often, these initially overlooked films evolve into cu

35 Light

Alphaville Warned Us About AI and Its Message is More Relevant than Ever

“Sometimes reality can be too complex to be conveyed by the spoken word. Legend remoulds it into a form that can be spread all across the world.” These are the first words spoken by the gravel voiced omnipresent supercomputer Alpha 60 in Jean-Luc Godard's noir sci-fi slow-burn Alphaville. Vaguely set in the late 20th century, Alphaville oozes the unmistakable cool of the mid-60s through our stoney-faced protagonist Lemmy Caution, an American spy undercover as a journalist with a name straight ou

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The large Japanese Family Scared Me

I first came across Psycho: The Large Family on YouTube through a video published by the channel ScareTheater. Known for its focus on internet horror, obscure mysteries, and eerie found-footage analysis, the channel often examines unsettling or ambiguous media that blur the line between fiction and reality. Initially presented as a straightforward documentary, this particular film stood out due to its subtle shifts in tone and structure. As the narrative unfolded, it became increasingly apparent

A Woman Under the Influence (1974): When Love Isn’t Enough and Madness Becomes the Polite Excuse

I don’t know if it was insomnia, the urge to watch something “different,” or just my inner emotional masochist acting up, but I ended up watching A Woman Under the Influence. What started as a curiosity about a so-called cult film turned into one of the most uncomfortable, raw, and painfully human experiences I’ve ever had in front of a screen. The plot is simple — even boring, if you hear it out loud: Mabel, a housewife, has some "unstable behavior," and Nick, her husband, loves her but doesn’t

The day a 'Calavera' opened my eyes on channel 50

I'm not gonna lie to you, when my dad, right on Father's Day, put on channel 50 and "El Gran Calavera" (The Great Madcap/Skullcap/Spendthrift) appeared, my first thought about those films was the usual: "Ugh, another one of those old movies that only he likes." I'm more into new stuff, or well, I thought I was... But something happened that day. Maybe it was the family atmosphere, the after-dinner chat, or simply that cinematic destiny had other plans for me. Because that movie, folks, it hit me

The Samurai, the Baby Carriage, and the Childhood Memory That Never Left Me

There are things we watch as kids that stay with us forever—not because we understood them, but because they left a mark. For me, Lone Wolf and Cub, known on TV as The Fugitive Samurai, was one of those things. I had no clue what feudal Japan was, or who the Shogun was, or what honor and revenge meant. But I knew one thing for sure: that silent samurai pushing a baby carriage was not someone you wanted to mess with. Even as a kid, I understood the language of that sword. He didn’t speak much, bu

Alphaville Warned Us About AI and Its Message is More Relevant than Ever

Memento – The Movie I Hate to Love and Love to Hate

There are movies that leave you speechless, and others that just leave you cold. Memento? That one does both, at the same damn time. I honestly don’t even know how to explain what this film does to me without sounding a little crazy, because here’s the truth: it frustrates me, it bores me, it makes me want to throw something at the screen... and yet I can’t stop thinking about it. It's like that weird song you swear you hate, but you catch yourself humming it in the shower. That’s when you reali

Sleepless in Seattle: When the Heart Had Its Own Frequency

Some movies aren’t for when they premiere. They’re for when they finally hurt… or for when they never stop hurting. I found it by chance. As a little girl. One random afternoon, alone, flipping through TV channels no one watches anymore. And I stayed. Not because I understood it, but because something in its tone spoke a language I didn’t know yet. Over time, it became a ritual. A film for cloudy days, for long silences, for nights when the soul needed shelter. Sleepless in Seattle wasn’t just a

SOME LIKE IT HOT: A Comedy About Disguise, Desire, and What Happens When Men Step Into a Woman’s World

It took me a while to watch Some Like It Hot. I had heard about it many times, especially its reputation as one of the best comedies ever made, but I hadn’t sat down to see it properly—until now. June, being Pride Month, felt like the right moment. And what I found wasn’t just a light-hearted film or a classic with good jokes. I found a movie that says more about gender, power, and attraction than many others that try to be more “serious.” The story follows two musicians, Joe (played by Tony Cur

This Unknown Film Is Why Star Wars, LOTR, Avengers, Naruto, Mad Max and Every Action Blockbuster Story Feels the Same!

A 70 year old b&w Japanese film is the BLUEPRINT that owns the narrative of ALL YOUR FAVOURITE ACTION FRANCHISE !? All those 207 days worth of cinema consumption lines up to this one MAGNUM OPUS film that has 207 mins of runtime but decades worth of influence! Influence so powerful that even this week’s release of PREDATOR movie has listed it in its influence for making their film ! Steven Spielberg, Andrei Tarkovsky, Martin Scorsese, Denis Villeneuve, Ingrid Bergman, Sergio Leone all these mast