Allen Pham

Past Lives is a visually stunning film with strong performances from Greta Lee and Teo Yoo. However, the film's lack of chemistry between the two leads and its overall lack of emotional engagement ultimately held it back. The film opens with a promise of a 90s nostalgic trip back in time and a reflection of the confusing balance of being an Asian American. It also evokes the sense of longing and simplicity from a Wong Kar-Wai film. However, these promises are not fully realized. The film's dialogue is often dull and uninteresting, and the characters' motivations are not always clear. The film's climax, in which the two leads finally confront their feelings for each other, is also underwhelming. The scene lacks the emotional intensity that is essential for a film about love and destiny. I never felt the lost love between the two or the longing that Jung Hae had for Nora that kept the spark flying for 20 years. Instead, I felt forced to sit there awkwardly between his old fling and her husband as he confused his feelings for Nora.

1 - Entertaining. You do want to know what will come next. 2 - It's much better than anything else Kevin Hart has done. 3 - That being said, it's still pretty bad. Unbelievable plot lines and Kevin Hart ... somehow still just Kevin Hart (in a bad way).

I get what the movie is trying to do but it didn't land - at all. As a few people said, this probably just made the situation worse than help. In a way, these people are trying to capitalize on these incidents and force a narration. Then forcing us to accept a good and bad character that creates real-life biases. The ending was TERRIBLE.

Balram (Adarsh Gourav), an Indian servant from a poor village, awareness and self-belief helps him break free from his past and inevitable future to become the entrepreneur success story showcasing what happens when willingness meets opportunities. Balram’s chance comes as he plots himself into being the Stork’s new chauffeur (his village landlord), where he caters to his new master the Stork’s youngest son Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and his westernized wife Pinky (Priyank Chopra). “The White Tiger” was an enjoyable and thrilling rags-to-riches story set place in India. The social commentary and clash of the western vs eastern world might have been packaged too neatly with easy-to-follow themes. But, the guided path made the movie familiar and challenged the viewer's own perspective. The rarest of animals -- the creature that comes along only once in a generation -- the White Tiger. The White Tiger is a sympathetic, once-in-a-generation, success story of rags-to-riches. That against all social odds in India, a self-believed person, through willpower can have choices once escaped from his cage that he inherited. Balram's awareness of the caste system and his trapping “in a perpetual state of servitude, like a chicken in a Chicken Coop”, becomes more apparent as Ashok and Pinky tease and flaunt the opened door only to slam it shut later on. As Balram’s inescapable, foreseeing future in the Coop led him to a dead end. Through his breaking point and willingness to sacrifice his past and his family, he summoned up the courage to break free from the Coop to become the White Tiger. India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness. A man born in the Light has the choice to be good. A man born Darkness doesn't have that choice. The movie simplified the discussion of social class, wealth, poverty, and the moral choices we might have. The social commentary brings up moral choices you might or might not have when you’re born in the Light, or in Balram's case the Darkness. Like any social issue, it shows the complexity of the grey area. The movie reminds us nothing is absolute, like black or white, or in Light or in Dark. Ashok and his family, born in the Light, have choices to be good or bad, and most times they seem to choose the latter when convenient. Pinky’s dilemma left her to decide to stay in the Light by choosing the Darkness, and leaving Balram’s with the only option of staying in the Dark. But through his darkest deed, the Light shined on him. In the Light, he was a person with choices that led to his rise to success and moral righteousness. Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English. Personally, with not much knowledge about the Indian culture, the movie did a phenomenal job of making it more relatable through the guiding and outspoken personality of Pinky and Ashok with their western influences and values. Through them, my perspective was heard and seen on screen. As I clashed with the culture and brought up questions of differences, they asked those questions for me. I was a character in the room and not just a fly on the wall. But, the constant hand-holding left me little to explore on my own. I was led directly down a path for the Westerners. From the ever-present western ideologies of Pinky and Ashok, Balram English narration, or the direct discussion of the brown, yellow, vs white man -- the Western world was everywhere. In conclusion, any enjoyable movie’s highest compliment -- I didn’t want the movie to end.

Christopher Nolan continues to envision new ways of telling a thrilling story using the subject of Time. From the nonlinear back and forth of Memento, to the continuous ticking of Dunkirk, Nolan has mastered keeping his audiences at the edge of their seats while they unraveled the new concept of how he wants to define Time, and Tenet is the same. Tenet is an action-packed, sophisticated heist movie, with an idea that will leave you scratching your head only to give up in confusion. But, once again, leaving the theater thanking Nolan for his brilliants. Tenet falls short in areas like shallow and cliche characters and the head-scratching concept of Inversion that made the audience work too hard without the same rewards compared to movies like Inception and Memento. Instead of leaving the audience in an AHA moment with an ounce of mystery to wrap up their own endings, Tenet leaves you with more questions rather than answers and a timeline with endless possibilities. It’s confusing, to say the least. What it lacks from other movies, it makes up in bringing back the full cinematic experience. A needed movie in 2020 when theaters have been closed for most of the year. Tenet is a reminder that certain movies need to be watched in theaters (and in IMAX) to fully immerse yourself in the sight and sound of what the writers, directors, cinematographers, music composers, editors, etc. envision. It’s one of those movies that demand your full attention for 2h and 30min and you’re lost in their world, where your reality is gone. Tenet isn’t just a movie that you watch -- it’s a film that you experience.