Author: Alejandro D. Orengo Colón
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Top 25 Films of 2022
This is the first full year we’ve had post-COVID where the movie theaters were opened and films were flocking into the big screen week to week. We’ve also had a bigger influx of films since a lot of them were put on hold or delayed in order for them to be showcased on the biggest…
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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: James Cameron’s Inexcusable Narrative
It’s been 13 years and multiple technological advancements since our introduction to James Cameron’s multi-billion dollar blockbuster Avatar, where we were introduced to the humanoid blue aliens called the Na’vi who inhabit a similar-ish looking planet Earth named Pandora. We followed the paraplegic marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he learned via his avatar to live…
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‘A Film About Couples’ Review: An Amusing Meta Self-Reflection on Love and Filmmaking
As a filmmaker, I thoroughly understand how difficult the whole filmmaking process is, and how strenuous it can be trying to get funding, trying to come up with a great concept for a film, and make sure you execute the film in a way that something coherent comes out at the other side of the…
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‘Black Adam’ Review: The Hierarchy of Power Might Shift
It’s been well over a decade since Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was cast as the villain turned anti-hero Black Adam. During this time both the status quo of comic book films and even him as an actor has evolved and shifted massively. Back then he was just entering into a potential solo movie, in a…
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‘Bones and All’ Review: A Young Adult Cannibalistic Love Story (New York Film Festival 2022)
The topic of cannibalism in media has been slowly incrementing in the last few years, from examples such as Steven Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk to Julia Docournau’s Raw and Mimi Cave’s Fresh. However, in each of these examples, we’ve seen the theme of cannibalism treated primarily in the context of a horror film. And while…
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‘TÁR’ Review: A Meticulously Composed Orchestra (New York Film Festival 2022)
It’s fascinating how the current social media landscape has evolved and re-examined our social interactions with other people. The rise of the “Me Too” movement allows society to delve into power structures. However, at the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s also been a keen awareness of what’s deemed as ‘cancel culture’. Todd Field’s newest…
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‘Aftersun’ Review: Heartbreaking Father-Daughter Trip Down Memory Lane (New York Film Festival 2022)
With the more abundant availability of tools such as the video recorder and disposable photo camera for recording and perceiving key family moments, the general consumer has been able to keep these precious moments forever in a capsule to revisit for the rest of their lives, but this came at a potential cost. The cost…
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‘Showing Up’ Review: A Realistic Depicting of the Struggling Artist (New York Film Festival 2022)
Cinema has a rich history of romanticizing the artist, from extravagant biopics to heavy-handed dramas and everything in between. The artist and his struggles have always felt very otherworldly and ethereal. Sometimes though, the artist doesn’t have some existential nightmare of trying to make it as an artist; the actual struggle they face is whether…
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‘Triangle of Sadness’ Review: Shallow Social Class Satire (New York Film Festival 2022)
Swedish director Ruben Östlund always has a keen sensibility when it comes to capturing absurdism in horrific or intense circumstances. Much like in Force Majeure and The Square, he understands and knows how to play up the comedic moments roped around the dire or ridiculous events our leads might be in. In the case of…
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‘A Couple’ Review: An Uninspired Visual Monologue (New York Film Festival 2022)
Film is a visual medium. As a result, artists tend to use all the elements in film to craft something the other six forms of art can’t do. Elements such as shot composition, pacing in editing, creating a mood or a tone, production and costume design, sound design, and so on. All these elements converge…
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