Killing Ground: Damien Power

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/107126/movie-review-killing-ground/.

4/10

Who the Fuck is That Guy?: Drew Stone

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/107132/movie-review-who-the-fk-is-that-guy/.

7/10

Dog Day Afternoon: Sidney Lumet

[Revisit Review]

Seeing Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon on a big screen was a revelatory experience: you could feel the heat, feel the sweat on the characters' brows, feel the panic and and stress felt by the characters. Al Pacino's swagger becomes animalistic on a big screen; John Cazale's stillness becomes statuesque. Also, any opportunity to see this film is worth it: it's one of the most humanistic thrillers ever. Each character feels like an actual person, so we actually care about them. We care about them so much we barely notice that most of the third act takes place on the telephone: it never loses its impact as gripping cinema.

9/10

Logan: James Mangold

James Mangold’s Logan isn’t just a dark superhero film because Wolverine drops f-bombs and gruesomely kills people. It isn’t just dark because it features scenes of children being tortured and murdered, of innocent people getting butchered, or for the cataclysmic gore of its fight scenes. It’s dark because it espouses a cynical, weary worldview. It’s dark because it addresses topics like aging and death, mental illness and the soul-destroying impact of watching loved ones wither away and forget you. Logan is the kind of mature superhero film I’ve been waiting for—the characters are moving, the story gripping, the fight scenes extraordinary (although some of the CGI—particularly a scene involving horses on a freeway with obviously digital 16-wheelers—is grating). This is the rare film that earns its pessimism. And I hope we get more superhero films like it.

8/10

Dunkirk: Christopher Nolan

To read my thoughts on this movie, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/watching-dunkirk-with-autism/.

9/10

Town in a Lake: Jet Leyco

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

3/10

Saving Sally: Avid Liongoren

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

5/10

The Truth Beneath: Lee Kyoung-mi

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

8/10

Split: Kook-Hee Choi

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

5/10

Suffering of Ninko: Norihiro Niwatsukino

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

8/10

Japanese Girls Never Die: Daigo Matsui

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

4/10

Happiness: SABU

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/new-york-asian-film-festival-2017-japan-southeast-asia-south-korea-sampler/.

7/10

The House of Seven Corpses: Paul Harrison

If you took just the first 15 minutes and the last 10 of Paul Harrison's The House of Seven Corpses, you'd have a damn fine horror film. The premise is wonderful: a film crew shooting a schlocky horror film in a haunted mansion accidentally awaken a zombie who kills them off in ways that re-enact the grisly ends of the original inhabitants. The premise is just the right blend of hokey camp and intriguing high-concept that one can't help but be interested. The cinematography is moody and disorienting in its languidness. The mansion itself is a great set. And some of the performances--especially a world-weary Richard Burton-esque character actor--are inspired. But none of this can save the film from one undeniable fact: the vast majority is boring and not scary. Most of the film doesn't even have a pretense of dread or suspense. It's just empty provocation without any emotional or psychological weight. Here's one film I wish would get a remake--I want somebody to do this story justice.

5/10

The Village of No Return: Yu-Hsun Chen

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/43189-2/.

5/10

The Road to Mandalay: Midi Z

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/43189-2/.

4/10

Mon Mon Mon Monsters: Giddens Ko

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/43189-2/.

7/10

Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight: Alan Lo

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/43189-2/.

4/10

Mad World: Wong Chun

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/43189-2/.

8/10

Okja: Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joon-ho’s OKJA is the perfectly emblematic of the genre-warping, expectation-thwarting, emotionally devastating cinema so perfected by the South Koreans within the last few decades. The fact that it’s an American co-production financed and distributed by Netflix is a dream come true: this might be yet another important step for South Korean cinema to finally get its dues here in the States. The film is audacious in how it allows the story to dictate its tone, not the other way around. At first, it’s like a Studio Ghibli fantasy between Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) and the eponymous super-pig. Then it becomes a heist film as she tries to rescue her alongside the Animal Liberation Front. Then it becomes a corporate thriller. And finally, a stark tragedy as they save Okja. And not once does it miss a beat. Simply put, I want more. More American/South Korean co-productions. More Joon-ho films. More films with so much reckless creativity. 

8/10

With Prisoners: Kwok Kuen Wong

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

7/10

KFC: Le Binh Giang

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

1/10

Jane: Cho Hyun-hoon

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

3/10

The Gangster's Daughter: Mei-Juin Chen

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

7/10

Birdshot: Mikhail Red

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

8/10

Bad Genius: Nattawut Poonpiriya

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

9/10

Double Life: Yoshiyuki Kishi

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-main/.

3/10

The Big Sick: Michael Showalter

If it took sci-fi epic Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) to remind us of the importance of empathy this last year, then in 2017 it seems like the job falls to Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick, the most unexpected sleeper hit of the summer. Based on the true story of Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani’s romance with his future wife Emily V. Gordon, the film is a wickedly funny, devastatingly truthful look at prejudice and love’s power to overcome it.

Kumail (who plays himself) starts the film as a struggling stand-up comedian in Chicago who moonlights as an Uber driver. His immigrant Pakistani family are desperate to marry him off to a nice Muslim girl, and almost every night at dinner they have an “unexpected guest” in the form of an eligible young woman who just so happens to have a headshot for Kumail. But things change when he meets Emily (Zoe Kazan) at one of his shows. They hook up and fall in love. But Kumail refuses to tell his family about her, aware that they have already disowned one of their own for marrying an Irish woman. After learning about his duplicities, Emily breaks up with Kumail.

And that should have been the end of their story. But then Kumail gets a phone call in the dead of night: Emily’s very sick. She’s in the hospital and none of her other friends are able to make it there so won’t he please drop by and see if she’s okay? But immediately after arriving, he’s shanghaied by doctors who convince him to sign a series of papers giving them permission to put Emily in a medically-induced coma so they can fight a virulent, life-threatening lung infection. Afterwards, while still in a state of shock, Kumail calls Emily’s parents Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter, Ray Romano) who fly in from North Carolina. The two of them know full well about their rocky romance and are less than thrilled to see him. But when the doctors tell them that their original diagnosis for Emily is wrong and they’ll have to keep her in a coma for several more days while they figure out why her body isn’t reacting to the antibiotics, the awkwardness and contemptuousness between these three desperate strangers breaks down.

From a theological standpoint, it’d be easy to interpret this film as strictly symbolic: people from all walks of life come together into a common family through their love of Christ. Too easy, in fact. I think Showalter is trying to say something more about how we allow arbitrary differences in culture and religion divide us over insignificant things. Everyone seems opposed to Kumail and Emily’s relationship: when his parents find out that he’s marrying a white non-Muslim girl, they do indeed disown him. And though it’s never explicitly stated, it’s obvious that the country-music loving, white-bread Beth and Terry have their reservations about their daughter falling in love with a Muslim. But notice how Showalter introduces these stereotypes only to dismantle them. Beth might be a Southern drawl-speaking daughter of a military family, but she’s the first to defend Kumail when he gets called a member of ISIS at one of his comedy shows. Terry might be a reserved New York City bookworm, but he’s capable of powerful, explosive emotions, particularly concerning his family. And while Kumail’s Muslim family are extremely conservative, theirs is a home of love, laughter, and family with few reservations against adapting to American culture—marriage being the big one.

8/10

Duckweed: Han Han

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

5/10

Someone to Talk To: Yulin Liu

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

6/10

Soul on a String: Yang Zhang

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

6/10

The Taking of Tiger Mountain: Tsui Hark

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/film/106156/nyaff-movie-review-the-taking-of-tiger-mountain/.

8/10

Extraordinary Mission: Alan Mak, Anthony Pun

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

6/10

Blood of Youth: Shu-peng Yang

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

6/10

Battle of Memories: Leste Chen

To read this review, go to: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/nyaff-mainland-china/.

4/10

Baby Driver: Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright's Baby Driver is a fascinating throw-back to old school car-chase movies as seen through the rose-tinted glasses of old school Hollywood musicals. But for the life of me, the filmmaker this film reminded me the most of was Jacques Tati: the intricate audio/visual gags, the meticulous in-frame compositions. Yet for all of this, Baby Driver left me the most cold of any of Wright's movies. It's still one of the most delightfully creative and original Hollywood films of the summer, but the plot is too predictable, the characters too one note, and for a "revival" of car chase movies, there aren't actually that many car chases. It's fun, but nowhere near as brilliant as Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

7/10

Despicable Me 3: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

To read this review, go to: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/film/105771/movie-review-despicable-me-3/.

4/10