The ramblings of a wannabe cineaste. Join me as I dissect the art of storytelling in films, comics, TV shows, and video games.
O'GRADY FILM

Review: Knives Out
[The following review contains minor SPOILERS; you have been warned!] Knives Out is about as far from a conventional murder mystery as...
Review: Frozen 2
Frozen 2 is nothing short of miraculous. In many ways, its predecessor became a victim of its own success; after it smashed every...
Review: Doctor Sleep
Sometimes, trauma leaves behind a shadow—a specter that hounds you throughout the rest of your life. Deny it, avoid it, run from it all...
Review: The Host
Over a decade before Parasite earned him near universal critical acclaim and made him top contender for Best Foreign Language Film at the...
Review: The Irishman
[The following review contains SPOILERS; you have been warned!] If the poetry of violence is a language in and of itself, then Martin...
Review: A Class to Remember
For the past three weeks, Film Forum has been running a special program of rare (and, in many cases, never before imported) Japanese...
Review: Depraved
Many classic “midnight movies” inhabit the gray area between art and schlock, and Glass Eye Pix’s Depraved is no exception; indeed, this...
Review: Parasite
[Minor SPOILERS below; you have been warned!] Finally caught a screening of Parasite. Like many South Korean movies, this dark comedy is...
Review: The Lighthouse
Caught a screening of The Lighthouse at Angelika Film Center. Director Robert Eggers’ previous project, The Witch, was elegant in its...
Review: Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp (It's Tough Being a Man)
I first became aware of Yoji Yamada back in college, when I discovered his three critically acclaimed revisionist samurai dramas—The...
Review: Joker
I hate that I have to begin a review like this, but the discourse surrounding this particular film makes it pretty much unavoidable:...
Review: First Love
[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; please proceed with caution!] Takashi Miike has always had a penchant for bending,...
Review: The Hunger
I’ve been meaning to watch Tony Scott’s The Hunger for quite some time now (ever since his untimely death, at the very least), and as...
Review: Promare
[Minor SPOILERS below; you have been warned!] The tropes and conventions of that distinctly Japanese flavor of sci-fi/action are fairly...
Review: One Cut of the Dead
The best Japanese filmmakers have always exhibited a talent for putting unique spins on familiar storytelling structures. The Zatoichi...
Review: Face to Face
Just got back in from my final screening of Metrograph’s “Shaw Sisters” retrospective: Face to Face, a Chinese/Japanese coproduction that...
Review: The Twin Bracelets
Metrograph’s “Shaw Sisters” retrospective—a special program of Shaw Brothers productions helmed by female directors—has entered its final...
Review - It: Chapter Two
In many ways, It: Chapter Two is similar to its central antagonist: a strange, unnerving beast that doesn’t quite have a solid grip on...
Review: The Illegal Immigrant
Caught another screening in Metrograph’s “Shaw Sisters” retrospective: The Illegal Immigrant, a romantic dramedy about an undocumented...





















