The sun is setting as the day draws to an end. We follow two young women in a solitary room as they attempt to disappear into thin air by consuming Nectar: an oily sap extracted from a strange plant. We follow them through what could be their final hour before they vanish. Cease is an audiovisual poem.
Treated like a granter of wishes for those earning out of retelling the same tragedy, Marilyn looks like she's caged in different stages of trauma for us to stare at, instead of someone we’ve finally allowed to rest in peace.
The most impressive aspect of this film is the honest and natural performances given by the on-screen duo.
Stand and Deliver is an inspirational classic from 1988 starring Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, and his class of rag tag students in East Los Angeles. It’s the story of how a new teacher shows a motley group of students in the inner city with backgrounds as gang members, dishwashers, and mechanics — the power of self-determination. He teaches the teenagers to believe in themselves through algebra and calculus.
Ripley is a great character because she serves two distinct, but rewarding, purposes in the original film and the sequel.
“Ad Astra” is a film that possesses similar beats to sci-fi classics, falling into the realm of cinematic hypnotism, and pulling us in with its mysteriously intoxicating identity.
