A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

Shui is an old Alzheimer patient suffering from memory loss and behaviour changes. Ha, as a personal care taker of Shui, stays together with him and takes great care of his daily lives. However, while his bad temper has turned into raging, Ha could not take it anymore and she runs away. Without Ha by his side, Shui is losing his only support. The neighbour seeks help from Ha’s son Leong to persuade Ha. During Ha’s absence, Shui is falling in love with Fang who looks a lot like Summer, but actually she is only looking for his wealth...
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
The more we learned with each passing minute the bigger the reveal. This film ends with a serious bang and it was truly a joy to watch.
The genres of science fiction and fantasy are not exclusively masculine territory. Over the last few decades, female directors have brought to the screen some of the most visually stunning, intellectually daring, and deeply moving works of speculative fiction. From big Hollywood productions like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel to independent low-budget films, women filmmakers are making a name for themselves around the world.
In order to learn why an arguably outdated fanfic trope was resurfacing in the contact zone of popular culture, I dove into a vibrant trough of character development.
During the third act, the momentum stalls, largely due to the film’s obsession with Kubrick’s visual design. But all in all, Doctor Sleep is a cinematic success, defined by rich characters and high powered emotion.
Stranger Things season 4 ups the ante to the max! The show’s scope has been expanding for the past three seasons, and boy do they give us a spectacle to behold. As much as I love spectacle, this season occasionally buckles under the weight of its own ambition.