Diary of a Spectator: Movie Reviews
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Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” Defines Apocalyptic Anxiety for Post-Trump America in a COVID-Era World. No Nuance Needed.

12/9/2021

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DON'T LOOK UP (L to R) JENNIFER LAWRENCE as KATE DIBIASKY, LEONARDO DICAPRIO as DR. RANDALL MINDY. Credit: NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX ©
Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) begins her morning like any other. She makes a cup of tea, curses at herself as she prepares her jam and toast, pops in her earbuds, and plants herself in the observatory at Michigan State. But as she looks out at the stars, she notices something strange, out of place, and beautiful: a comet, fierce and fiery, making its way across the solar system. For a brief moment, Kate experiences the joy of genuine discovery. She’s soon joined in the observatory by her fellow PhD candidates and their mentor, astronomy professor Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio). But after conducting a few calculations, Kate and Randall come to a stomach-churning realization about the comet. ​

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In the Style of Teen Classics Like “The Breakfast Club” and “Dead Poets Society,” Daigo Matsui’s “Remain in Twilight” Appeals to Our Restless Youthful Spirits With Wit and Sincerity [Fantasia International Film Festival]

12/6/2021

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Originally published on Elements of Madness.
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L-R: Kisetsu Fujiwara as Tajima, Ryûya Wakaba as Akashi, Ryô Narita as Yoshio, Kengo Kôra as Fujita, Kenta Hamano as Sogawa, and Rikki Metsugi as Mizushima in REMAIN IN TWILIGHT.
It’s not every day we get the chance to chat with a loved one who has passed on. Skeptics would say that we never get that opportunity. If you’ve lost someone important to you, you’ve probably at least imagined having one last conversation with them, whether you believe in the afterlife or not. Imagining that conversation can provide a sense of comfort and closure that unexpected death does not grant us. But if you did get the chance to spend a day with someone you’ve lost, would it really be enough time to get the closure you need? Writer/director Daigo Matsui builds an elaborate fantasy based on that very question in his latest feature film, Remain in Twilight, which screened at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival. Based on Matsui’s play of the same name, the film provides a funny, sincere, and powerful take on grief and mortality.

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    ​​"Our embodied spectator, possibly perverse in her fantasies and diverse in her experience, possesses agency...finally, she must now be held accountable for it." 
    -Michele Aaron

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