Awards season is always my favourite time of the year. However this year is a little bit different. 2020 was a different year for the film industry as film releases and productions were pushed back. However, some films managed to make an impact in 2020, through online film festivals and on demand releases. Award season certainly looks different this year as the biggest night is almost here: The Oscars. Usually the Oscars are held around February, but of course the pandemic has changed that. I remember the euphoria of last year when Bong Joon Ho and Parasite won three Oscars […]

Last week I had assignments to do and a thesis project to work on, but I ended up somehow spending one entire day watching WandaVision. Needless to say, I got hooked into watching Marvel Cinematic Universe films. I’ve watched all the films in the MCU films before, but some of them I haven’t watched in years and not in chronological order. So instead of focusing my energy on school work (I hope my professors don’t see this), I spent an entire week watching the entirety of the MCU in chronological order for a week; about 3-4 films a days. Yes […]

Every year I look forward to attending TIFF Next Wave and spending a fun weekend with friends watching films chosen by a committee of twelve high school students. It’s a festival that supports and helps to grow the next generation of film enthusiasts and filmmakers. Their stories are the ones being told on the screen. It gives otherwise marginalized voices in the film industry a chance to share their stories and give them opportunities to explore the industry through their eyes. Nothing exemplifies this more than the movie Beans, directed by Tracey Deer. I heard a lot of buzz around […]

The Mummy (1999) is a great film, the other films are great as well (yes even the third one). I’m not afraid to admit that they’re some of my favourite films. I can probably do a one woman show, just reenacting all three films. I love me some Brendan Fraser; a fun fact once I saw him at Eaton Centre many years ago. I love the terrible cgi mess of Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson as the Scorpion King. I love the ridiculous, campy feel of this Indiana Jones knockoff. I have watched the entire series each year since I was […]

Wong Kar Wai. A director who is a pivotal figure in filmmaking and Hong Kong Cinema. He’s known for beautiful bold cinematography, mixed in with thematic atmospheric music in a non-linear narrative. He’s one of the most influential directors domestically and internationally in the golden age of New Wave cinema in Hong Kong. Now you’re probably wondering Wong Kar Wai am I talking about him? (get the pun?) As a big fan I have been waiting for him to make a new film just as I have been waiting for David Fincher to make a new film. Then my dreams […]

Each year I look forward to film festival season. Each year I try to attend festivals such as TIFF, Inside Out, ImagineNATIVE, and Reel Asian in some capacity. However, this year has been vastly different compared to last year. Festivals have moved to digital platforms and so there’s a possibility of piracy issues or technical issues. Despite all that, these films are bringing some light in a somewhat odd and difficult year for many.  Last week I attended Reel Asian 2020. Their entire week of programming was online this year, from Nov. 12th to 19th. Their films were available to […]

My parents came from Hong Kong to Canada about 30 years ago. In their first few years, they searched for local places that sold Hong Kong films and TV shows to cling to a familiar comfort. Over the years they collected mostly comedies, police procedurals, and romance DVDs. I grew up watching these and it’s where I started my love for films. Over the years as I grew up, I watched less Hong Kong films as they weren’t as easily accessible and I started to watch more Hollywood movies. Recently as of last year and during quarantine, I have been […]

(imdb.com) (imdb.com) (imdb.com) (imdb.com) March 8th was International Women’s Day, where we celebrate women’s achievements and aim to create a gender-equal world without bias. I celebrated by watching a few films that were made by women or feature women’s stories heavily. I realized that before this, I never went out of my way to watch movies made by women and their stories. It’s something, as an avid film fan and supporter of gender equality, that I wish I did more. Now it is my goal this year to watch more films made by women and their stories. So if you’re like […]

Do you like Hot Priest from Fleabag or Jude Law in The Young Pope? Well, this film isn’t exactly that, but it is about a priest. Kind of.  Corpus Christi, while the title of the film is a city in Texas, is a Polish film. The film was Poland’s entry for the 92nd Academy Awards, which did end up being nominated for Best International Film Feature. Directed by Jan Komasa, the film follows the story of a young man named Daniel, played by Bartosz Bielenia, in a juvenile detention centre. After spending time in the detention centre, he experiences a […]

C’est juste une fille et elle est en feu. For those who don’t know how to read French or don’t trust Google Translate, that sentence means, “She’s just a girl and she’s on fire”. Which is taken from Alicia Keys’ song, “Girl on Fire”. Besides being my review on letterboxd (a shameless plug, follow me at _jessilaw), it also best describes why Portrait of a Lady on Fire is one of the best of 2019. Directed and written by Céline Sciamma, the film is set in France in 1760. A young woman, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), is commissioned to paint a […]

This past weekend I decided to attend TIFF Next Wave because it was free for people under 25 and the films looked interesting. I saw six films at the festival, but I’m going to focus on one film and if you’ve read the title, it is called Sequin in a Blue Room.  The film follows of a 16 year old who uses a hookup app to meet older men for sex, under the alias name, Sequin. He calls himself Sequin, as he wears a sequin shirt with every hookup. Once he’s had sex with the partner he blocks them and […]

Another year of film has come and gone. The biggest night is almost here, the night that other film award shows has been leading up to: The Oscars. Every year, once the nominations come out, there will be complaints and accusations of snubs towards certain films and actors/actresses. Films like The Farewell, Uncut Gems, Us, Hustlers, and more. Understandably, not everyone can be nominated, but the issue still with the Academy is the lack of people of colour and nominations for women directors. The work and talent is there, they just weren’t recognized. There are some nominees that have been […]

Awards season is upon us, and it’s a chance for some of the best films of 2019 to be recognized. Since the Oscar nominations recently came out, a lot of people have been voicing their opinions on what was snubbed. And here I am, ready to argue in 350-500 words in a review of why the Academy snubbed The Farewell. Directed by Lulu Wang, The Farewell follows the story of Billi, a Chinese born woman, who now lives in the United States with her parents. Billi has a close relationship with her Nai Nai, who she later finds out has cancer from her […]

Reelasian.com Others: Ms. Purple My friend, an intellectual: Ms. Violet Beauregarde In an effort to watch more films about Asian American stories, I attended the Reel Asian Film Festival this month. The film I was most excited to see was Ms Purple, directed by Justin Chon. Yes, the guy who was briefly in Twilight, is now a director. This is Chon’s sophomore feature film after the success of his first film, Gook, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2017. The film stars Tiffany Chu as the protagonist, Kasie, as she is stuck on LA’s Koreatown working as a karaoke hostess […]

The film that spawned a meltdown amongst the Timothée Chalamet because of his bowl cut finally come out on Netflix. I was intrigued and decided to see what this film was about. While it is available on Netflix, I thought I should give it a fair chance and see it on the big screen at Tiff Bell Lightbox. David Michod is the director and writer of the film. Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role as King Henry V at the start of his reign. Joel Edgerton played his trusty right-hand man, Falstaff, who has an equally interesting bowl cut. There’s […]