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Clunky ‘ETERNALS’ Reveals Chloé Zhao Ill-Suited for Marvel Universe

Nomandland writer-director and Academy Award-winner Chloé Zhao is celebrated as a humanist, naturalistic storyteller. A filmmaker who sinks into the very pores of the characters and communities she crafts her movies around. Telling stories from a deep understanding of what make these people tick and the idiosyncratic customs of their way of life, Zhao champions the use of non-actors and the backdrop of mother nature to achieve a lived-in, grounded aesthetic. With Zhao’s films, you often feel as if you’ve stepped into another universe, one that’s been squirreled away on some part of our planet we just didn’t know existed. Read More

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The Steep Price of Legacy in ‘THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT’

Commerce is a wheel beneath which much is crushed. And once that wheel is in motion, there is no stopping it. Not for epistemological discourse. Not for environmental factors. Not even for late-stage stomach cancer. In Kim Nguyen’s unorthodox The Hummingbird Project, there simply ain’t no mountain high enough, no river wide enough to keep the Zaleski cousins from installing a direct line of high-speed fiber cable from New York City to Kansas. The wheels of commerce roll on and they intend to be its primary highway.  Read More