Hi, it's Ben. I like films (among many other things), and here are some places you can find me talking about them. I'm a podcaster, film critic/writer, and general swiss army man. Currently based in Singapore but you might find me lost in other countries. Open for writing collaborations/commissions, sidequest projects, and, honestly, almost anything you could think of.
Deep Cut is a director-focused film podcast featuring deep-dive discussions about international, art-house, and independent cinema. I co-host with my friends Wilson and Eli.
The fourth of seven director interviews Wilson conducted at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival is with Edwin, director of the fantasy horror Sleep No More . Edwin shares his wide range of influences from Indonesian cinema history and beyond, speaks to his film’s…
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The Kinetoscope is a newsletter following my personal journey discovering and thinking about cinema.
I’ve struggled in the past with making sense of experimental film. Do they offer a pure sensory experience or something intellectually argumentative? As someone who usually looks for an emotional experience in the cinema, formally experimental cinema, especially the likes of which I’m writing about here, is not…
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I built and currently run filmbulletin.sg which aggregates film listings. Easily find showtimes and film screenings outside your regular cinema all in one place.
★★
It's pretty much the first act of Spielberg's AI taken to dull extremes. There's a kid-robot Nobody Knows movie here that could've been kinda interesting, but instead we keep following a married…
★★★
Maybe I've outgrown this kinda movie but I found myself getting pretty bored of it mid way through. The emotional thrust/plot is barely serviceable and its really just itching to be a Street Fighter…
★★★
Maybe trying too hard to be sophisticated and "restrained" horror when it should have just gone dumb mode and tilted into slasher of some sort. Probably needed more (fun) characters to make it work…
Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
★★★★
I sometimes think that language is maybe the most essential and important piece of human technology, it steers us towards meaning formation, it gives shape to our lives, it encodes our sensory inputs…
★★
Paper-thin in the writing department, as much as everyone is trying very hard to make it work. While I like to be entertained, I think everyone's desire to entertain is also the film's Achilles heel.…
★★★
It's mostly effective as standard horror if a little one note overall (scare-wise and thematically). There's a more interesting movie here, maybe it should be a love story?
★★★
I don't understand this room they're having sex in, what is it? An apartment landing? She exits out of a marked door with a room number? The mattress is tiny and thin and the pillow looks like it's…
LE SSERAFIM VR CONCERT : INVITATION
★★★★★
logging this was a choice; 5 stars for 5 STARS at one point kazuha wears a shirt that says daddy: yes
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
★★★★
It's almost put together too well that what feels improvised feels well scripted? Riffing endlessly is the essence of good storytelling
★★★★
Honestly should be in the same conversation as many European art house classics, think Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky...
★★★
Tees up a good premise but then doesn't get down and dirty with it. Opting to just gawk at it which spells a lack of courage. Also wonder how different the movie would be if this had been Charlie's…
Public Conversations is a site-specific podcast experiment, capturing the intersection of a
time, a place, and the people that move through it.
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