REVIEW: Watcher [2022]

You’re suspiciously quiet. Despite being half said in jest as a means of disarming Julia’s (Maika Monroe) fear, Irina’s (Madalina Anea) words are no less chilling. Her response to the former’s belief that someone is following her is to admit how never learning the truth may prove better than knowing. Better to “live with the uncertainty” than “find yourself bleeding out with ‘I told you so.’ caught on your lips.” That is the unfortunate reality illustrated by writer/director Chloe Okuno‘s feature debut Watcher (adapted from Zack Ford‘s original script and…

Read More

REVIEW: The Neon Demon [2016]

“Are you food or are you sex” Fame: all that’s glittered and gold, the intrinsic “it” quality we’d kill for but never do. That aura with an expiration date; beauty, confidence, radiance, and whatever other label outsiders use to transform you into a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited within the tiny window before someone younger takes your place. This is Nicolas Winding Refn‘s The Neon Demon, an unexplainable concept jumping person to person without definition or discernment. It consumes the souls of unwitting vessels, makes them and breaks…

Read More