normal. is the most realistic film that I’ve seen during my time at LAAPFF. There’s almost a cinéma vérité-type of reality to the film—where even the most smallest conversations have painfully real awkward flourishes in ...
In the Land of Lost Angels plunges you into a world of black and white. It’s quite the bold move for director Bishrel Mashbat—especially when it comes to winning over modern audiences who are used ...
Staycation opens on a handjob. Or was it a blowjob? Rest assured that it probably doesn’t matter which it was, since by the end of the film millenial couple Luke (Anthony Ma) and Peggy (Grace ...
How many life problems can be solved through the music of Bruce Springsteen? As Gurinder Chadha‘s joyous film Blinded by the Light might suggest, the answer is, quite frankly, all of them. The film follows ...
There’s no doubt that Doris Yeung‘s The Ugly Model is a documentary that tackles a difficult subject matter, but it seems to have lost its way somewhere between its conception and its execution. Doubling as ...
Justin Chon‘s third feature film Ms. Purple is a film that gives an unflinchingly real portrayal of a young woman stuck within familial turmoil. Tiffany Chu gives a stunning performance in her breakthrough role as ...
In this genre-spanning film, director Minh Duc Nguyen brings the magic of moviemaking to his backyard of Garden Grove, CA. Actress Wanted follows struggling actress Mai (Thien Nguyen) as she takes on an acting job ...
When you get down to it, Mike Gan’s “School Spirit” is a story that we’ve all heard before. A combination of the we’re-not-so-different-after-all cloyingness of The Breakfast Club, and the teenage debauchary of many a ...
We talked to director Justin Chon during LAAPFF about his film, 'Ms. Purple'
When I asked Nanfu Wang, the Chinese documentarian behind 2019’s chilling One Child Nation, about the possibility of artistic freedom in China, she simply laughs. “More freedom in China?” Wang repeats. “Where?” In a certain ...