amber can walk

Talking about the pandemic can be tiring. Watching movies where the pandemic is happening, or has happened can be exhausting. Much like Trump, it feels as though all that could be said has been said and that maybe we should just stop talking about it because it's a massive downer and no longer a problem. I've never been good at processing things on time. It always feels like I'm slightly behind emotionally which is a roundabout way of saying that I don't think I'm over that one thing that happened in March 2020. The world stopped and I was stuck in permanent state of panic for about a year. And then it ended (allegedly). Everyone around me stopped being cautious which made me feel insane. Where I was still keeping my distance from people and feeling increasingly isolated, many people had already returned to what they were doing before. I felt very alone and once again, unable to process what had happened. It feels incorrect to call it traumatic, not just because the...

I did not like Blonde (2022).  When the film was being announced and more and more critics I respected were talking about how bad it was, I really tried to have a measured response to it. I did my best to not participate in the discourse surrounding the film because I really don't have the space in my brain for hating films I haven't even watched. I scrolled past. I ignored. I gave a cursory glance at those praising Marilyn Monroe as an actor, and moved on. I knew I was going to watch it at some point but it wasn't going to be when everyone was talking about it with this much animosity. More and more, outrage sells. We've probably all had a celebrity we once respected saying or doing something outrageous (code for transphobic or racist), and I'm just cynical enough to believe that at least some of them enjoy the attention and the money that comes from it. Bad publicity is better than no publicity in the internet age and thus the hate-watch is solidified in our cult...

The population of Haida Gwaii were some of the first people to watch  Edge of the Knife (2018), a horror film set in the 19th century recounting the tale of a man changing into Gaagiixiid (a wildman figure common throughout their culture's folklore) after committing an accidental act of violence. This would be the first feature film to use only Haida as dialogue, a language with only 24 native speakers . Many of the actors in the film were not fluent themselves and had to attend a two week language boot camp where elders were invited to teach Haida to younger generations. Not only was this film a milestone in its own right, the production and distribution of the film became a way to prevent the language from being forgotten. As Adeana Young, one of the stars of the film, stated:  "Not long after the language is gone, the culture is gone [which] is scary, really scary." In her second documentary feature, Violet Du Feng, along with co-director Qing Zhao, present a sto...

Oh hey! I've been away for a while. Had a bit of breakdown and hit a major depressive episode in which I could not get myself to write. I have been around, mostly working on my podcast and trying to be a normal human being again. This very much implies that I was one in the first place which has been hotly debating and regularly debunked. But I have returned for Halloween. 'Tis in fact the season. I've started doing this thing on my side twitter where I create a recommendations thread for Halloween because I love horror films and I want to recommend films people might not have seen. Last year, I did a list of films directed by women . This year, it's the gays . Horror is an excellent genre to explore queer issues because life is a nightmare and queerness is often viewed as inherently abject (particularly recently).  I'll link my full list here  but for now, here are 5 films you should watch celebrate the spooky season: The 4th Man (1983, directed by Paul Verhoeven)...