Category: Nodal Point

Major spoilers for “Vertigo,” & “Om Shanti Om.” Minor ones for “Inception” and “Dunkirk.” Cinema is engineered memories — a meticulous (re)construction of the intangible; an intercutting of precise technique and imprecise emotion; the (as late/great film scholar Gilberto Perez puts it) — “material ghost.” My four favorite films of July highlight the very construction of filmic […]

9 to 5. 5 to 9 to 5.I’ve belonged to both. Then I sought to get away from both.It’s natural, I suppose. Whenever I’m bound up, I want to escape. When I’m free, I seek direction. My four favorite films of June find people, symbols, institutions, and states see-sawing between forms of extreme order and disorder. Two Christopher […]

Major Spoilers for three 2022 films — “Armageddon Time.” Minor spoilers for “The Fabelmans” and “No Bears” — all now available to watch on different streaming platforms. It’s always thrilling to see filmmakers upend conventional film narratives and forms. Doubly so, when the established template that’s deviated from is the autofiction film — usually conceived […]

A question asked during the Q & A of Bi Gan’s fascinating “Long Day’s Journey into Night” brought about an answer from the young Chinese director that continues to linger in my mind. The person in the audience asked the director if he thinks contemporary filmmakers should focus on making emotionally driven films (like Gan’s […]

From the moment we enter this world to the time when we evaporate into the void, we are always either under some form of authoritarian presence or are the authority itself. This consistent authoritarian presence is not strictly limited to one that is political, which, in the current state of democracy, tends to extract criticisms. […]

This is an academic paper on the analysis of Antonin Artaud’s essay on “Cinema and Reality.” The concept of medium specificity of cinema has been a source of discussion among filmmakers, film theorists, and cinephiles since the very conception of cinema itself. From film theorist, Tom Gunning’s thesis about the integral role of early silent […]

It comes as no surprise to me that the aspect of films that even the most restless film viewer finds most comfortable to comment on is an actor’s performance. Why would it not be? Performances are so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that commenting on them feels natural to us. We know when an actor […]

What are you searching for today? Is it something that you kept somewhere yesterday that you can’t find? Or is it something about how you feel today? Cinema and its multitude of narratives continue to exploit our consistent and more than often restless need to search for something or the other by placing their unique […]

“Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me.” Guillermo del Toro’s loving ode to the history of cinema and fairy tales, and outsiders, “The Shape of Water,” (2017) ends on this lovely short poem whose single line has resonated with me ever since I watched the film. It is a […]

One of the recurring phrases I hear, and often use when conversing with a close one is, “Remember when we…” As we mature, our constant desire to cling on to memories seems to grow stronger. These memories are, essentially, our own versions of our history we want to either live repeatedly or forget. While the […]