Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
December 16, 2025 December 16, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

RIVER PHAN

CINÉ ZOOMS 2 / CC BY 3.0
Die My Love, like the most complicated relationships, will pull you into unusual and ugly territory but offers a first-hand account of the suffocating and raw reality that emerges when you engulf yourself in another.

How Die My Love makes a desolate marriage surprisingly captivating

By RIVER PHAN | November 18, 2025

MAXIMILIAN BÜHN / CC BY-SA 4.0
Phan argues that Guadagnino’s newest film After the Hunt is the result of moralism: It coddles the viewer with a benign but flat portrayal of sexual assault, opting to say nothing of value when it could go against the grain.

The cowardly interrogation of #MeToo and academia in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt

By RIVER PHAN | November 6, 2025

RON RAFFETY / CC BY-SA 4.0
Phan reviews the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland.

One Battle After Another isn’t the perfect Pynchonian movie, but it’s the exact picture of today’s America

By RIVER PHAN | October 18, 2025

HARALD KRICHEL / CC BY-SA 3.0
The Brutalist's technical achievements and old-school approach are balanced by a compelling but ultimately aimless narrative.

The Brutalist: When technique triumphs purpose

By RIVER PHAN | February 5, 2025

XFRANKSUN / CC BY-SA 4.0
Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov star in Anora, Sean Baker’s film about a sex worker who goes by Ani who marries the son of a Russian oligarch and is thrust into an unfamiliar world.

Anora is a dazzling picture of how escapism won’t save you, but it may not be Sean Baker’s strongest

By RIVER PHAN | November 16, 2024

BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT / CC BY 4.0
Sebastian Stan plays Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s latest film The Apprentice.

Even as its star in The Apprentice, Donald Trump is still outshined by Roy Cohn

By RIVER PHAN | November 7, 2024

KAREL CHLADEK / CC BY 2.0
Phan contends that Coppola's heavy investment in Megalopolis does not prevent it from being a disaster and that stripped of all the controversy, it fails to make a lasting impression.

Megalopolis is overwhelmingly sincere but not that great

By RIVER PHAN | October 9, 2024

CHARLES HATHAWAY / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Set in California in the 2000s , Sean Wang’s debut film ‘Didi’ paints a nostalgic yet resonant portrait of growing up.

Didi is a truly endearing Asian American coming-of-age portrait that’s for everyone

By RIVER PHAN | September 15, 2024

GAGE SKIDMORE / CC BY-SA 2.0
Kristin Stewart stars as Lou, a reclusive young woman who becomes absorbed in an all-consuming relationship with a bodybuilder and goes to great lengths for her.

Love Lies Bleeding is fast fun but is only superficially subversive

By RIVER PHAN | April 8, 2024

DICK THOMAS JOHNSON / CC BY 2.0
The film Perfect Days stars Koji Yakusho as a Japanese bathroom cleaner who appreciates the small joys in life.

In Perfect Days, we face life’s vulnerabilities through the comfort of routine

By RIVER PHAN | March 3, 2024

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