Posts by Eternality Tan

For more than 17 years, ET has been intensely passionate about everything that encompasses cinema. He is an adjunct lecturer of film studies, a professional curator, sometimes producing shorts, and always writing reviews. He's also an incredibly devoted fan of The Criterion Collection, plays the piano/keyboards and guitar, and absolutely adores Snoopies.

September 21, 2019July 22, 2022 by Eternality Tan

Your Name (2016)

Shinkai’s breathtaking romance anime is imbued with a modern sensibility as it takes on conceptual themes of time travel, apocalyptic disaster and body swapping with effortless aplomb.

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September 21, 2019July 22, 2022 by Eternality Tan

Place Promised in Our Early Days, The (2004)

In his beautiful if sometimes convoluted first feature, Makoto Shinkai shows the early rumblings of an artist who would become a first-rate anime director.

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September 20, 2019December 2, 2019 by Eternality Tan

Zen in the Ice Rift (2018)

Capturing teenage angst and emotional uncertainties with aplomb, this under-the-radar Italian LGBT film is easy-going and will appeal to the wider audience.

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September 19, 2019July 12, 2020 by Eternality Tan

Lost City of Z, The (2016)

A remarkably-realized film about the great British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, yet it is James Gray’s patience with pacing that is most rewarding, with the film unfolding like a traditional biopic in the mould of an inspired tone poem on obsession and mystery.

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September 18, 2019August 28, 2021 by Eternality Tan

Dear Son (2018)

Tunisian director Ben Attia’s second feature is minimalist to a fault, but his exploration of the impact of jihadism on a middle-class family is quietly devastating if not always engaging.

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September 17, 2019December 2, 2019 by Eternality Tan

House of Hummingbird (2018)

A perceptive and delicately-drawn first feature with an outstanding central performance that feels but earns its length.

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September 15, 2019February 17, 2021 by Eternality Tan

Day After I’m Gone, The (2019)

This is an unexpected discovery from Israel—an assured debut feature about a father and his suicidal daughter that is directed with incredible subtlety and nuance.