Under the Skin (2013)

Scarlett Johansson oozes sex appeal that can melt a man into a puddle in this update of Catherine Zeta-Jones’s Elizabeth Arden advertisement

Cloud Atlas (2012)

The Warchowskis are back with an anthology of 6 unconnected stories from 6 different genres, set in the past to distant future.

The gimmick: Everything is connected by the narrative structures of film and story. Yes, it's a 3 hour exercise in Lit 101.

Watch for: Wachowskis riffing off Amistad, Moby Dick, Amadeus, The Talented Mr Ripley, The China Syndrome, Shaft, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Make Way for Tomorrow, Soylent Green, Blade Runner, Logan's Run, Total Recall, The Fifth Element, The Road Warrior, Zardoz, and A Canticle for Liebowitz -- and mashing them into one bland mess.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on16 January 2013.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

A washed-up, alcoholic screenwriter wants to write a screenplay about psychopaths. He gets acquainted with several. Hilarity ensues.

The gimmick: a genre piece that's a loving tribute, lurid pastiche, and sly deconstruction of genre norms, expectations, and cliches of the "LA crime story".

Watch for: a film that outdoes Tarrantino.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 9 January 2013.

It Begins with the End (Ca commence par la fin) (2010)

This would be the French arthouse version of 500 Days of Summer, telling the ins and outs of a failed romance out of chronological order.

Unlike 500 Days of Summer, this isn't really good at all. It's a first film by a director who makes the typical mistakes in storytelling, concept, casting, editing, and so on.

Watch for: every other scene beginning with the first eight bars of the Brandenberg Concerto no. 4, movement 2, as if to signal that you're watching something important and intense.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 24 October 2012.

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)

The best way to approach this comedy is to watch it as a project to expose the romcom formula and structure, then subvert it from within.

The gimmick: a happily separated couple of over a year might as well be the happiest couple alive with their effortless chemistry and intimacy together.

In a reverse of other indifferently written romcoms, you can't really figure what they don't see eye to eye on, why they're supposed to be moving apart, and why the film really wants to split them apart.

Is that groundbreaking for the genre and what we really want to see in the genre?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 October 2012.

The Words (2012)

A dissipated pulp writer presents a novel about a plagiarist who discovers his story is Based On Real Life because the real author tells him All About It.

Highly postmodern, the literate thriller sets up a series of Chinese puzzle box narratives. That ride is fun and worth the entry price.

What isn't fun is how all that careful literary construction leads to a very disappointing punchline.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 October 2012.

SPEC: Heaven (劇場版 SPEC ～天～) (2012)

It's definitely a Japanese scifi when the ending of the world is foretold in a Catholic prophecy while shadowy forces play out their Gambit Pileup. All while the personification of Walter Benjamin's Angelus Novus watches on.

Yet SPEC literally reverses the genre convention that protagonists are the aberrations in an otherwise normal universe populated by very normal human beings with their very mundane agendas.

Watch for: a crazy premise taken to its logical, absurdist extreme.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 1 August 2012.

Red Lights (2012)

To commence: a deadly serious and literally deadly battle of wits to unmask, decipher, and explain a convincing series of confidence tricks masquerading as magic and illusion.

The premise: exactly the same as The Prestige, The Illusionist. You may watch them as a triple-bill.

To watch: a battle of ham between Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, and Cillian Murphy.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 25 July 2012.

First Time (第一次) (2012)

A girl dying from a terminal illness is wooed by an ideal suitor. It all turns out to be planned by her mum.

First Time is probably the very first film in Mandarin to subvert the romcom genre and parody the drama dating couples put each other through.

Then you realise the scriptwriters don't have the talent to write what they really intended. So promising but frustrating.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 13 June 2012.

POV: A cursed film (POV: 呪われたフィルム) (2012)

Japan delivers a postmodern found footage horror where real-life idols (played by themselves) are harassed by ominous goings-on that Wes Craven might have devised.

What's off-putting: the low budget television film look, lack of real scares.

What's going for it: highly literate playfulness as the film deconstructs and reconstructs the horror genre.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 25 April 2012.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Attention, Wes Craven: Joss Whedon shows you how to make a successful postmodern horror film.

Clue: it's more of a comedy for horror film fans than a horror/slasher played straight.

Cabin sets up the horror film conventions, holds your hand and takes a step back to explain how the conventions work, gets all snarky and witty deconstructing the conventions before your eyes, and still tells a decently horrifying and hilarious story at the end.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 18 April 2012.

How do you know (2010)

4 comedians with different comic styles in a double romcom where no more than 2 of them appear in the same scene.

How do you know is the exquisite corpse of sketch comedies.

Your mileage will vary depending on whether this concept appeals to you.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 2 March 2011.

Heartbreaker (L'arnacœur) (2010

Trust the French to make a film that cynically thumbs at the concept of romance while simultaneously reaffirming it.

A pair of professionals will, for a small fee, break up a pair of lovebirds of your choice.

It's just an excuse to showcase hilarious and slapstick situations that clearly lampoon the entire romcom genre.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 25 August 2010.

Chloe (2009)

Etom Egoyan returns to form with Chloe, another film showcasing the director's obsession with metafiction and metanarratives.

This time round, a successful doctor hires a call-girl to set up a series of liaisons to ensnare her husband, whom she suspects of being already unfaithful.

Ergoyan gets to play postmodern Douglas Sirk with this film, and the results make for fascinating viewing.

Read my full review on Fridae, first published on 7 July 2010.