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: Minari
Watched Minari via A24’s online “screening room”—certainly not my preferred viewing method, but it’s still safer than venturing out to...
Review: Nomadland
With the (allegedly) COVID-safe telecast of the 2021 Oscars ceremony looming, I decided to finally make an effort to catch up on this...
Unraveling the Tangled Narrative Web of Fatal Deviation
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] On Saint Patrick’s Day, I watched Fatal Deviation—which proudly...
Review: My Octopus Teacher
Once you’ve seen enough documentaries, it becomes nearly impossible to ignore the genre’s inherent artificiality; its entire purpose,...
Review: Mona Lisa
[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] It’s remarkable how changing a single ingredient can significantly...
The Long Good Friday: Trapped by Time
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Things change, Harold. Don't get nostalgic. Look to the future....
Review: The Long Good Friday
The Long Good Friday is the perfect anti-mystery story. The plot revolves around Harold Shand (played by Bob Hoskins at his brutish...
Revisiting Mars Attacks!
Mars Attacks! absolutely terrified me when it was first released. Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement. It would be more accurate...
Review: Grosse Pointe Blank
[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] It took me way too long to discover Grosse Pointe Blank. Which...
Review: Confessions
Imagine Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale. Now, replace most of the physical bloodshed with psychological warfare—a tense game of mental...
Review: Sakuran
Mika Ninagawa began her career as a photographer, and that background is clearly evident in Sakuran, her directorial debut. Every frame...
Review: Air Doll
On paper, the premise of Air Doll (an inflatable sex doll somehow develops sentience and proceeds to wander the streets of Tokyo) sounds...
Review: Red Post on Escher Street
For his latest mind-bending cinematic acid trip, Sion Sono couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate title than Red Post on Escher Street....
Review - Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1
I’ll give Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 (also known as Crazy Samurai Musashi) a little bit of credit for its ambition; after all, it takes a...
Review: Bright Future
Despite his recent efforts to distance himself from the label, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is still best known as a “J-horror” director. Unlike his...
Review: The Great Yokai War and The Twilight Samurai
Japan Society is currently hosting an online retrospective celebrating the past twenty years of Japanese cinema, spotlighting a wide...
Wolfwalkers: The Shape of Oppression
[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] As complex and compelling as Robyn Goodefellowe, her father, and...
Review: The Masque of the Red Death
Apparently, American International Pictures’ The Masque of the Red Death has been available on the Criterion Channel for quite some time,...
Review: The Ladykillers
In some movies, the setting can be as much of a protagonist as any human character. The Ladykillers, produced by Ealing Studios in 1955,...



















