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Persuasion (dir. Carrie Cracknell, 2022)- Review

Yes, it's been panned as one of the worst book adaptations in living memory- but if you have the mental and physical wherewithal to kick back and slander Netflix’s take on Persuasion- Austen novel in hand, presumably on a chaise longue- this movie is simply not for you. It's for everyone else.

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Men (dir. Alex Garland, 2022)- Review

“I didn't want it to feel like a gimmick,” fretted Rory Kinnear of the “nine or ten” different characters he plays in Alex Garland’s latest horror, Men. “I don't want it to become an acting exercise or virtuoso kind of thing.” Such hand-wringing earnestness is what makes Kinnear such a perfect foil to his co-star, indie darling Jessie Buckley, in what could otherwise be another stodgy serving of A24 ‘folk-woke’.

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Oldboy (dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2003) — Review

“The ultra-violent flick, beloved of Tarantino and global box offices alike, played a pivotal role in destabilising the Confucian-esque image of the Asian man which predominated markets until, arguably, the rise of Henry Golding and Simu Liu. Like the best of Western culture, it hinges on one thing and one thing only: Catholicism.”

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Everything Everywhere All At Once (dir. The Daniels, 2022)- Review

“The movie lives and dies in the perspective of a beleaguered Asian mom. Evelyn is utterly powerless, in a way which neatly encapsulates, and answers, the whole minefield of issues around representation: she’s not powerless because she’s a 60 year old Asian woman. She just happens to be the only powerless version of that 60 year old Asian woman. With no ability to even engage with the multiverse, let alone inflict violence on it, Evelyn must patch up her shattered worldview and identity through other means.”

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Top Gun: Maverick (dir. Joseph Kosinski, 2022)- Review

"Takes on Top Gun's 'legacy sequel' have largely revolved around its core engines of nostalgia and nationalism, incarnated in Tom Cruise: one of the 'last true movie stars', doggedly refusing to shuffle out of the cockpit. Critics moan that the villains buttressing such 'Murricana triumphalism have failed to change with the times- but from another perspective, its roaring box office success speaks to a new, internationalist era of 'muscular masculinity".

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