Active Vague Visages Film Columns
“‘She’s the He’ is a successful attempt at not just carving out a space for LGBTQ identity amidst the overbearingly heterosexual narrative tropes, but also bending those tropes so they can fit into a tale of trans awakening…”
“‘Plainclothes’ isn’t necessarily a kinky film — it just does better than most tales of life in the closet to explain why this can be more alluring than coming out and finding somewhere to make these connections in the open.”
“Aside from the half-assed plotting, the biggest flaw of ‘Honey Don’t!’ is that even with Cooke’s involvement, the sexuality of the protagonists lacks any sort of perceptive depth, with no inter-character dynamic feeling more lived-in than the plot needs it to be.”
“Gradually, the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy redefines queerness as a process of self-discovery which can always evolve, rather than an ill-fitting label you’re stuck with after a single formative experience.”
“Weard’s anthology series is shaping up to be one of the decade’s most impactful queer texts.”
“The biggest problem with ‘Pet Shop Days’ is the extent to which it feels indebted to both an earlier wave of rebellious LGBTQ cinema and current trends in American independent filmmaking, never finding a distinct identity beyond homage.”
“In contemporary queer cinema, there isn’t a work like ‘The Visitor’ that’s even dared to tackle the wider-ranging relationships between disadvantaged communities on the receiving end of society’s scorn.”
“‘Bye Bye Love’ is very enjoyable, but its central story is neither as involving or as subversive as it perceives itself to be when leaving the frankness of its bedroom scenes behind.”
‘Nobody Wants This’ Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every song in Erin Foster’s Netflix series.
‘Speak No Evil’ Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every song in James Watkins’ 2024 movie.
“Tiger Bay as a state of mind may be long gone, but ‘Tiger Bay’ the film remains a document of a place long turned to rubble. And what vital documents.”
‘Like many great crime films, ‘Only the River Flows’ makes full use of its setting, delivering a grimy and ugly story that suits its grimy and ugly central location.”
“‘Victims of Sin’ certainly is a product of its time and place in regard to its prescriptivism, but Fernández’s movie far surpasses its simpler elements because of its rather glorious and noirish textures.”
‘The Instigators’ Soundtrack: A Vague Visages guide for every song in Doug Liman’s 2024 Apple TV+ movie.
“The genius of Sayles’ ‘Lone Star’ is that the film envelops its difficult, knotty questions about history, identity and geography without any didacticism.”
“Many of the best crime films make a virtue of the specificity of their location. Few, however, are as specific as ‘Salvatore Giuliano,’ nor are they as cognizant of how the central locations effect the story.”
“‘Strangler vs. Strangler’ is somewhere between the avant-garde and the absurd: a perfect description of Belgrade itself.”
“The spatial detail in ‘Five Deadly Venoms,’ aided by Chang’s sharp sense of timing, helped the film become a surprisingly labyrinthine vision of camaraderie in the face of corruption and power.”
“‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’ truly sings during its quietest moments.”
“It’s a sense of Korean specificity that defines ‘Memories of Murder,’ which is still the best of Bong’s films.”