2025 was a significant improvement for cinema compared to 2024. Not only did we see a skyrocket of beloved original movies financially succeeding at the box-office such as “Sinners” or “Weapons,” creating memorable cultural phenomena, but in general, original movies seemed to have exclusively made up the best of the year. This list will highlightContinue reading “The Fifteen Best Movies of 2025”
Author Archives: Evan Ambrose
Bi Gan and the Pursuit for Auteurship: A Resurrection Review – The 26th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap
In “Resurrection,” 36-year-old director Bi Gan reveals a very telling thesis that helps explain the storytelling ethos of his previous work: humans cease to be humans without dreams; what it means to be us is to pervade logic from time to time. In 2015, at the age of 26, he released his feature-length debut “KailiContinue reading “Bi Gan and the Pursuit for Auteurship: A Resurrection Review – The 26th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap”
The Ten Best Movies of 2024
2024 felt like a year of rebuilding. Where the previous year had a heap of significant events that severely limited the industry, it felt like audiences were finally subjected to the consequences of those incidents. It would be disingenuous to call this another year of missed potential when nothing seemed to gleam among the seaContinue reading “The Ten Best Movies of 2024”
‘Phantosmia’ – 25th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap
In any given society, there will always be people who develop deep regret from committing acts of service for their government regardless of whether or not they’re socially encouraged as something to evoke pride in. We often hear stories about war veterans or anyone who worked a government job that required soliciting violence, struggling withContinue reading “‘Phantosmia’ – 25th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap”
The Ten Best Movies of 2023
2023 is a year of missed potential. The writer’s and actor’s strikes that took place this year overwhelmed most of its relevant film releases. It would appear that the risk of greed in the industry has overridden the pursuit of innovative works and created a dangerous precedent for the future of cinema. That being said,Continue reading “The Ten Best Movies of 2023”
‘Evil Does Not Exist’ – 24th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap
Following the success of his 2021 film “Drive My Car,” Academy Award-winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, in his latest feature, is not concerned with showing you that evil does exist, but rather incentivizing you to think that it can. From the moment the film opens, with a worm’s-eye-view dolly capturing the tops of snowy trees andContinue reading “‘Evil Does Not Exist’ – 24th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival Recap”
Turn off the Bright Lights 