A laborer moves to Shanghai in the hope of becoming rich. But ends up using his kung fu skills to survive. Remake of The Boxer From Shantung.
Its predictability shouldn’t distract from the enjoyment that the pure cinematic imagination behind the camera elicits. It is a movie of crises both moral and mortal, oozing with CGI, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Not every film can make a shopping mall feel both magical and menacing, but Forbidden Fruits challenges that.
This list was made with the intention of celebrating comedic craft and a love of seeing more women of colour and newcomers on the scene.
An aspect of She-Ra that I find refreshing is even though a large portion of the cast is on the LGBTQ+ Spectrum, being gay is never mentioned. While this might initially sound like a negative thing, in the show’s land of Etheria being on the gay spectrum is shown to be so common and normalized that straight isn’t the default. As much as there is to appreciate about narratives revolving around the obstacles that may come from being non-heteronormative, it’s nice to get immersed in a world where no one bats an eye at all to any sort of differing identity.
Even now, the well-established Snyder has yet to learn this as he continues to allow misguided decisions to convince him that his projects hold the same kind of intelligent and emotional weight. Army of the Dead is a tonal mess, one that never decides what it’s trying to be, and, for all we know, doesn’t want to decide.
The Invite is witty, dramatic, funny, and probably the best comedy released this year so far.
