The heart is a monstrous thing. When we’re young and heartbreaks come easy, it seems so true it’s barely worth acknowledging. If we’re lucky, we grow up and spend the rest of our lives forgetting this fact— an artifact of our awkwardly remembered angsty, pining teenage years. But for most, there’s a day sooner or […]
The desecration of 5 Pointz came suddenly one night in 2013. Paid men, at the behest of a real estate developer, painted over the graffitied murals that adorned the walls of this Queens complex. A gross, white layer of gunk was slathered on top of the colorful tapestry of aerosol paint that had occupied the […]
A lone receptionist stands behind his desk. At all times, he maintains a demeanor that is equal parts serious, bored, and annoyed. He keeps his desk neat, and though the hotel is clean and modern, he doesn’t consider his job particularly glamorous. Day in and day out, he checks people into the hotel. The next […]
There is a chill that runs through Kim So Yong’s In Between Days, frigid air that occupies the space between characters, between film and viewer. The film takes place in Toronto, although it could be anywhere in this part of the world where winters bring biting wind and teenagers roam aimlessly. Aimie (played by Kim […]
When I watched Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous (2015), I was supposed to be working, finishing up a deck to be presented that afternoon. That day, the US had pulled out of the Paris climate accord. Over 230,000 Americans lay dead from a disease that a monstrous man bolstered by a monstrous party had let ravage the […]