REVIEWS
Focusing on the life of two women post-incarceration, the documentary short film delivers a raw, compelling showcase of Trinity Copeland and Assia Serrano’s stories, experiences, and struggles after they get out of prison and return to their “normal” world.
Winnie Cheung’s latest film, Last Call, premiered at South by Southwest 2025 as an acid folk thriller bathed in neon lights, with almost dizzying glimpses of Claudia’s life. Each shot is a puzzle piece putting the premise together, from dancing at a party to her speeding on a motorcycle. It plays out like a psychedelic dreamscape, constantly changing gears without waiting for the viewer to catch up.
Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has died 16 times. He is what they call an “expendable”—his sole purpose to be a test subject, to die and be reprinted for humanity’s needs. It’s the 2050s and humans have hopped on spaceships to escape capitalism and a dying Earth. Four years into the expedition, Mickey is now the eponymous Mickey 17.
The film’s format successfully pulls at the initial threads of many necessary conversations surrounding the incident without actually making any commentary on its own. Owens’ murder reignited conversations in America surrounding “stand-your-ground” laws, especially how they are frequently tied to racism and discrimination, and The Perfect Neighbor elicits further discussions on this front.
INTERVIEWS
We spoke to director, writer, and stop-motion artist Lucy Davidson about her experiences watching her film come to fruition, the value of comedy in emotional storytelling, and the influence of personal preferences on creating and developing artistic styles.
A Lien (2023) is a 15-minute short film directed by brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz, highlighting the burdensome process of obtaining U.S. citizenship. We spoke with Filmmaker David Cutler-Kreutz about the complexities in the U.S. immigration system, challenges during production, and the future plans of the filmmaking duo.
Carmen Emmi’s feature-film debut, Plainclothes, follows Lucas (Tom Blyth), a talented young police officer in the 1990s who works undercover to entrap and arrest gay men. The complication? Lucas is secretly gay himself, and his carefully concealed world begins to unravel when he falls in love with one of his targets.
This coming-of-age film is set in a small town, where the food and drinks from the local deli mean community, and conversations are more than just segues into reunions between old friends. We spoke to co-directors and writers Benjamin Cohen and Max Strand about their experience making the film together as childhood friends, curating distinct character arcs, and the role of nostalgia in film narrative and form.
ESSAYS
Beyond its technical merits, many of which remain competitive almost a century later, Gone with the Wind falls flat as a romance film. The four-hour runtime dilutes the main storyline of Scarlett and Rhett's love with unnecessary scenes.
One of the most intriguing things about Min Yoongi’s discography has always been his thorough exploration of different concepts of identity. Both his songs as SUGA of BTS and his robust solo career as Agust D are full of reflections that hit with a gut-punching earnestness. And out of all of his forays into the topic, the 2023 Agust D D-Day concert tour was the most revelatory into his views on art and its relation to the self.
You’ll often hear K-pop fans say that their favorite groups or idols saved and healed them. A lot of people outside of the genre roll their eyes and call that childish or dramatic. But it’s so very true.
By the time I got to the first cooking scene, I didn’t care that I was about to see food; I wanted to know if our heroes could get sustenance in order to rescue their fallen ally.