This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
35 Watchlist Films 2026 (35/35)
Oscars 5x5 – Round 4 (Best Supporting Actress)(5/5)
Thanking my past November 2022 self for adding You Can’t Take It with You to my watchlist, and my present June 2026 self for finally deciding to watch it. Sometimes, watching a wholesome American classic just hits the spot. Also, it’s somehow an amazing encapsulation of the interwar period with all the “-isms” of fascism and communism, but also a critique of the billionaire class that is…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Oscars 5x5 – Round 4 (Best Supporting Actress)(4/5)
There should be more classic films with an all-female cast. Somehow, even when released in the 1950s, they actually touch on actual women’s issues – even if those women are behind bars. Having Marie Allen go into premature labor after being nutrient deficient and anemic due to the prison conditions, only to then have her mother say that she is financially dependent on a domineering husband was a heartbreaking but such telling…
Films like Mind Game, though incredibly innovative, are a reminder that the world of cinema is still very much a man's world. One could argue, as I'm sure the fans of this movie will, that there are no "films like Mind Game." Yes, there was something truly extraordinary about it: the animation was stunning and I very much appreciated the film-maker breaking away from modern convention. Yet, the story was so obviously conceived by a man's mind - the crude…
Whether you grew up in China or in the United States, if you don't know your self-worth as a woman, you're going to find yourself in terrible situations. In The Joy Luck Club, some of those scenes were the most heartbreaking.
Despite the heart-wrenching scenarios some of these women found themselves in, the film as a whole was beautifully-told and incredibly touching. I loved this window into Chinese and Chinese-American cultures, respectively, the latter of which has barely received much focus in American cinema. More than anything, though, I loved the centrality of women to the plot of the film. The men were merely a footnote.
