There are many good films released around the world every year. Masterpiece celebrates the best of the very best: genuinely superb works of cinema that come with FictionMachine‘s very highest recommendation. If we had our own Criterion Collection, these are the films we … Continue reading MASTERPIECE: Zodiac (2007)
Jinpa (played by actor/poet of the same name) drives a lorry along a Tibetan plateau. He comes across like a truck-driving rock star, dressed in dusty leather clothes with a constantly present pair of shades. One day he runs over … Continue reading REVIEW: Jinpa (2018)
In Emily the Criminal, a modest crime drama gets mixed with strong character work and a savage social critique of American society. The overall effect is superb: had I managed to see the film last year it likely would have … Continue reading REVIEW: Emily the Criminal (2022)
Four years after their unexpectedly massive Netflix hit, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are back with the COVID-delayed follow-up Murder Mystery 2. It picks up protagonists Nick and Audrey Spitz some time after their original adventure, having tried to establish … Continue reading REVIEW: Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
Science fiction television series Ultra Q was, upon its original release in Japan in 1966, a substantial commercial hit. It was its sequel series Ultraman, however, that properly hit the pop culture stratosphere. Between then and now there have been 34 separate … Continue reading REVIEW: Shin Ultraman (2022)
When its theatrical release was delayed by more than a year, Glenn Chan’s bleakly violent thriller Shadows was left making its way around what few film festivals remained open during the pandemic. It is a flawed work, but still boasts … Continue reading REVIEW: Shadows (2020)
Li Taihang (Wang Bo) is a disaffected teenager living in an anonymous city in Hebei Province. He lives with his police detective father (Li Weidong) but rarely speaks to him, instead stealing cash from him when he sleeps. Taihang spends … Continue reading REVIEW: The Son of Mountain (2018)
Since his feature debut with 1989’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto has long held a reputation as one of Japanese cinema’s greatest enfants terrible. His independent productions, from Tetsuo and its sequels to Bullet Ballet, Tokyo Fist, and A Snake of June, have consistently forged their … Continue reading REVIEW: Killing (2018)
Gao Ye (Aaron Kwok) is a gambling addict deeply in debt with local loan sharks. When a sex worker named Mo Mo (Yang Zishan) turns up at his hotel door, he soon sees it as an opportunity to defraud her … Continue reading REVIEW: One Night Only (2016)
If there wasn’t evidence all over the Internet to prove it, you would never believe Aurora’s Sunrise was real. This animated blend of drama and documentary relates the story of Aurora Mardiganian, a young Armenian woman who witnessed the murder of … Continue reading EEFF: Aurora’s Sunrise (2022)
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