“Look past the chastity cages, pup masks and Prince Albert piercings and you’ll find one of the most incisive, painfully relatable stories about modern queer romance to have arrived of late.”
“‘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…”
“‘When Comedy Went to School’ is a must-see for not only American Jews, but also for anyone who appreciates the art of stand-up comedy.”
“‘Goosebumps’ stands as further proof that there’s real demand for scary movies for kids…”
“Even the most cynical satire is half in love with the object of its barbs; there is a part of every constrained creative that loves their shackles and will make great play of rattling them.”
“‘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.”
“Robert Butler’s ‘Night of the Juggler’ isn’t the best New York City film ever made, but it might be the best cinematic representation of the location.”
“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.”
“Rejection is the purest form of rebellion. Bogarde was never embraced by Hollywood in large part because ambivalence is not a bankable asset. He left too many questions unanswered.”
“Weard’s anthology series is shaping up to be one of the decade’s most impactful queer texts.”
“Nolan’s radical approach with ‘Batman Begins’ forever changed multimedia synergy and the very nature of action films.”
“Nabili’s ‘The Sealed Soil’ can be seen as a precursor of the minimalist styles that came to define so much of modern Iranian cinema.”
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
“Taken purely as a cheap thrills style horror movie, ‘Unfriended’ is hugely effective. But as an unflinching denouncement of peer pressure and cyberbullying, it’s downright terrifying.”
“In Lodge Kerrigan’s first three features, he asks audiences to consider those left in the wake of his central characters…”
“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.”
“The 90s variant of the hitman archetype became entangled in the disorientation of the time, prone to the same neurotic preoccupations as the cultural cadres warring around them…”
“‘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.”