REEL | 90s Baby! – Still 'Dazed and Confused' After All These Years

"It'd be a lot cooler if you did."

Universal Pictures / Focus Features

Beloved Austin-based, independent filmmaker Richard Linklater's highly influential but box office disappointment of a sophomore teen film, Dazed and Confused, famously took its title from the killer Led Zeppelin classic rock song whose music rights the film was unsuccessful at securing for its bitchin' soundtrack, all the way back in the year 1993. This was one of many omens of sorts for its eventual lasting cultural legacy as a stone cold cult classic. Some three decades after its debut, its all-in-one-day, last-day-of-high-school hangout vibes remain strongly rewatchable.

REEL | 'Miami Vice' at 20 – Revisiting the Misunderstood Neo-Noir

"Let's take it to the limit one more time."

Universal Pictures

Ahead of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of its theatrical release, another reappraisal of methodical filmmaker Michael Mann's initially critically misunderstood but now reappreciated action neo-noir, Miami Vice, is clearly warranted. Based on the iconic 1984-89 NBC undercover cop drama series that he produced but was created by veteran television writer Anthony Yerkovich, the 2006 blockbuster film adaptation flopped hard at the global box office.

REEL | Busting 'Ghost World' at 25 – A Sad Alt-Comic Book Brought to Life

"You guys up for some reggae tonight?"

United Artists / Granada Film

Before the twenty-fifth anniversary of its theatrical release, it's a fine time to revisit the first-ever film based on a graphic novel to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2001, Ghost World translated famed Eightball cartoonist Daniel Clowes' offbeat yet grounded, cult classic alt-comic book (1989-2003) of the same name into live-action, offering a wholly bleak yet highly comedic slice of life, not dissimilar to American Splendor.

GENRE | Finally 'Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' – Pure Uncut Revenge

"Tear that bitch apart!"

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

The one and only Quentin Tarantino finally reassembles his fourth film (split in half but counted as one by its director and star), the two-volume Uma Thurman-starring revenge actioner into one four-and-a-half-hour magnum opus of uncut martial arts ultraviolence, retitled Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

REEL | Top 10 Films of the 21st Century So Far

"We won't be like them."

Janus Films / Jet Tone Films

Click on each film title to read its corresponding review:

1) In the Mood for Love ¹ (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

2) Mulholland Drive ² (dir. David Lynch, 2001)

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry, 2004)

4) Ghost World ³ (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

5) The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, 2010)

REEL | Cinematic Heartbreak – Falling 'In the Mood for Love'

"Feelings can creep up just like that."

Janus Films / Jet Tone Films

It's 2008, and I'm a young cinephile—the only way a college freshman with no real life experience of any significance can be—after being heavily influenced by the American independent film movement of the late nineties and early aughts, thanks to accessible DVD culture. After being shown the seminal 2000 Cantonese-language film In the Mood for Love in an introductory first-year film class at UBC, I immediately fell in love with its beautiful sense of cinematic heartbreak and breathtaking cinematography set across romantic 1962 Hong Kong.

SCREEN | Talking Heads Starts 'Stop Making Sense' x TIFF 2023

"Talking Heads was such a good band."

Toronto International Film Festival

A24's newly acquired, soon-to-be re-released 1984 seminal Talking Heads live rock documentary, directed by the late Jonathan Demme has been gloriously restored in sparkling 4K video optimized for IMAX screens. Long considered "the greatest concert film ever" made, Stop Making Sense's pulsating musical cinematic composition feels as energetic and rhythmically innovative as ever, nearly four decades later.

GENRE | Bong Joon-ho Investigates the 'Memories of Murder'

"What kind of detective sleeps well?"

Neon / Elevation Pictures

Thanks to the improbable success of Parasite, South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho's acclaimed 2003 police drama Memories of Murder has been remastered and re-released for North American audiences. Partially based on Korea's first serial murders in history between 1986 and 1991 that went unsolved until last year, the crime procedural methodically dramatizes the step-by-step bungling of an entire investigation and dissects a small-town police force's inexperience in solving homicides.

REEL | Top 10 Films of the 2010s

Each film reviewed where linked below:

1) The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, 2010)

2) The Handmaiden (dir. Park Chan-wook, 2016)

3) Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-Ho, 2019)

4) Her (dir. Spike Jonze, 2013)

5) Frances Ha (dir. Noah Baumbach, 2013)

6) The Favourite (dir. Yorgas Lanthimos, 2018)

7) Once Upon A Time in… Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2019)

8) Lady Bird (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2017)

9) Phantom Thread (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017)

10) Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)

Top 10 Films of the 1980s

1) Hannah and Her Sisters ¹ (dir. Woody Allen, 1986)

2) The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kershner, 1980)

3) Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989)

4) Raiders of the Lost Ark (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1981)

5) Raging Bull (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1980)

6) Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982)

7) The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

8) My Life As A Dog (dir. Lasse Hallström, 1985)

9) Back to the Future (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1985)

10) Say Anything... (1989, dir. Cameron Crowe)

Yippee Ki-Yay! Top 10 Christmas Films

1) Die Hard ¹ (dir. John McTiernan, 1988)

2) It's A Wonderful Life (dir. Frank Capra, 1946)

3) Go (dir. Doug Liman, 1999)

4) Love Actually (dir. Richard Curtis, 2003)

5) Bad Santa (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2003)

6) Elf (dir. Jon Favreau, 2003)

7) A Christmas Story (dir. Bob Clark, 1983)

8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (dir. Henry Selick, 1993)

9) The Santa Clause (dir. John Pasquin, 1994)

10) Home Alone (1990, dir. Chris Columbus)

Top 10 Films of the 1990s

1) Dazed and Confused ¹ (dir. Richard Linklater, 1993)

2) Reservoir Dogs (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

3) Goodfellas (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990)

4) Chungking Express (dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 1994)

5) Being John Malkovich (dir. Spike Jonze, 1999)

6) Pulp Fiction (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

7) Ed Wood (dir. Tim Burton, 1994)

8) Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson, 1998)

9) Boogie Nights (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)

10) Election (dir. Alexander Payne, 1999)

Top 10 Films of All-Time

1) In the Mood for Love ¹ (dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)

2) Mulholland Dr. (dir. David Lynch, 2001)

3) Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater, 1993)

4) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry, 2004)

5) Dr. Strangelove (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

6) Psycho (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

7) Ghost World (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

8) The Graduate (dir. Mike Nichols, 1967)

9) Reservoir Dogs (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

10) Hannah and Her Sisters (dir. Woody Allen, 1986)

Top 10 Films of the 2000s

1) In the Mood for Love (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

2) Mulholland Drive (dir. David Lynch, 2001)

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry, 2004)

4) Ghost World (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

5) Zodiac (dir. David Fincher, 2007)

6) Y Tu Mamá También (dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)

7) Almost Famous (dir. Cameron Crowe, 2000)

8) Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

9) Oldboy (dir. Park Chan-wook, 2003)

10) The Dreamers (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003)

Asians on Film: 'Better Luck Tomorrow'

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) is a truly excellent film about the second generation, young, Asian male's experience in North America. Co-written and directed by American-Taiwanese director Justin Lin before he started doing wildly mediocre studio fare like Annnapolis, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and its follow-up, Fast & Furious. The on and off screen talent here is primarily Southeast Asian. This is a rare feat and unsurprisingly, a result of an independent production funded by credit cards and MC Hammer. Better Luck Tomorrow surprised many, especially when it was picked up by a major studio, Paramount Pictures under its MTV Films banner in 2002.