American Ninja 4: The Annihilation (1991)

Kung Fu Chit was a beautifully made, empowering short film that really spoke to me. Featured in Incluvie’s 2020 Film Festival, Kung Fu Chit tells the story of a girl who doesn’t quite fit in.

As an extremely avid fan of DC’s animation, I’ve become familiar with the way the studio uses Batman as a bit of a Trojan Horse to introduce some of their lesser known characters.

The characters aren’t likable, the story is predictable and the humor is either disgusting, obnoxious, or uncomfortable. The Wrong Missy is a mess of a film and it’s not really worth your time.

I write for a diversity-focused film review blog, so I’ll be honest: I really wanted to like Pretty Lethal. Starring Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Iris Apatow, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds, Amazon Prime’s new thriller seemed like it would be a girl power movie about dancers with a horror action twist. Sort of a Suspiria for teens. But with shallow and unlikeable characters, a confusing plot, an overreliance on violence, and cringey dialogue, any fun the movie started out with was quickly lost. What was left was a faint echo of greater horror movies about dancers made before. 

We can criticize depictions from old media, but they weren’t simply “good for their time”. They were fighting and struggling in a world we can’t imagine.

Films can alleviate alienation by presenting realities where the viewers feelings are shared by onscreen characters. The film 'Shrek' can be interpreted as a transgender story.