Back in January, when I first saw Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the world felt different. The world was different. Coronavirus hadn’t been identified in the States yet. “Social distancing” wasn’t a thing. Rampant racism against Asians and Asian Americans (which was always there in a more diluted form) hadn’t […]
In recent years, there’s been a small wave of domestic horror films whose source of terror comes from within. Rather than being haunted by a monster or a psycho killer, the threat instead comes from within the family lineage, manifesting family pressures, illnesses, and hidden anxieties into ugly, hideous forms. Perhaps most recognizable within the […]
When writer-director Danny Madden was asked about why he decided to create Beast Beast, a film based off of his SXSW winning short “Krista,” he mentioned how working with lead actress Shirley Chen largely drove the decision. “She has more life and bubbliness–I felt that was something missing from the short,” Madden replied. Truth be […]
Someone in the front row was snoring. Forty minutes into the film, the sound of heavy exhales from the audience slowly but surely grew to a crescendo a few scenes later. At first, it was hard to tell whether or not the sound was coming from the background of the film (or if the film […]