Alex Nguyen

In a 2001 interview with The New York Times, Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who was compared to Oskar Schindler after playing a key role in organizing the evacuation of 669 mostly Jewish kids from Czechoslovakia just before the start of World War II, dodged an explanation about his efforts, saying, “Why did I do it? Why do people do different things? Some people revel in taking risks, and some go through life taking no risks at all.” James Hawes’ debut feature film, One Life, is an ex...

Birth opens with a self-proclaimed “man of science” speaking over a black screen, discussing his love for his wife as something that exists beyond logical explanation. What follows is an extended tracking shot of the same man running along a snowy trail in Central Park to Alexandre Desplat’s spellbinding score. The jogger hunches over upon arriving at a tunnel, collapses to his knees and dies of a heart attack, but the film then cuts to a scene of a baby being born, taking in its first experi...

Filmmaker Michael Mann is fascinated by the destructive masculinity within his determined protagonists. Whether they’re a professional safecracker, a police detective or black-hat hacker, he mythologizes them. Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), the focus of Mann’s latest film, Ferrari, is perhaps the supreme example as a self-made man, one who became an accomplished race car driver in his twenties and later established his own racing team and automobile manufacturing company. People called him “Il C...

The Boy and the Heron’s Japanese title translates to How Do You Live?, a phrase that describes the themes of Hayao Miyazaki’s film more accurately and shares a name with a 1937 novel by Genzaburō Yoshino. While the connection between the two is not obvious – they share little in common in terms of plot – both works center around children learning that change is possible even in the face of losing a parent. The pair’s worldbuilding processes develop a foundation to question each boy’s morals, ...

When Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros was first announced in 2022, it was called A Family Business, a title that perhaps contained a double meaning, alluding to both the Troisgros family’s restaurant, La Maison Troisgros, and the dynamic between the patriarch and his two sons. The documentary takes place in a Michelin three-star restaurant in southern France and focuses on how the chefs create elaborate dishes for their demanding clients. Director Frederick Wiseman follows the entire preparatio...

Todd Haynes is a filmmaker who uses subversion to draw out the most intriguing details of his subject matter. Whether it’s using Barbie dolls as actors in his debut featurette, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story or portraying the life of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with seven fictional characters in I’m Not There, he has always played with the medium of film to find the unexpected perspective. This quality allows him to explore ideas of identity, sexuality and culture in America with a grea...

Murmrr Theatre, Brooklyn, NY
10/31/23
What makes a good Halloween concert set? Is it the costumes, the crowd, the treats (sonic or otherwise), or just the vibes of the music itself? Tuesday night’s Voidz show revealed that it’s a commingling of all of the above, in which the joy of watching an energized performance comes from both the crowd and the band. The All Hallow’s Eve spirit was also accentuated by the atmosphere of the Murmrr Theatre, a small venue located in a synagogue, complete wit...

Release date: 27 October 2023
6/10
(Albums)
(Poppy)
You could say Zig is a fitting name for this album, the latest example of an artistic vision taking a step forward while simultaneously changing direction.
Ever since her debut, 2017's bubblegum pop-soaked Poppy.Computer, Poppy – real name is Moriah Rose Pereira – has undergone one transformation after another, refusing to be boxed into any single lane. Just a year later, the latter half of her sophomore effort, Am I a Girl?, mixed in nu-met...

Elsewhere, New York City, NY
10/20/23
Genesis Owusu, born Kofi Owusu-Ansah, seems like he was always meant to perform in front of a live audience. He blew up in his home country of Australia and became an international name with the release of his acclaimed 2021 debut LP, Smiling With No Teeth. Owusu then built his reputation from his frenetic live shows, dancing with his “goons,” singing with The Black Dog Band and later opening for Paramore’s 2023 North American tour.
On stage, Owusu shows ...

Terminal 5, New York City, NY
10/4/2023
Yves Tumor’s set began with a scream slicing through the smoke-filled stage. It wasn’t one of terror but one of disorderly desire, inviting the audience to join them on a transcendent journey of self-exploration. They ask us about our relationship with ourselves by way of reflection on themes of spirituality and love – questions that have interested Tumor since the beginning of their career. “Limerence,” an ambient piece originally from Tumor’s 2015 deb...

Webster Hall, New York City, NY
9/28/23
It wasn’t just older folks, the ones who followed their ’90s output, at last week’s Slowdive show. It was also early twentysomethings who connected with shoegaze during the pandemic; you need only to go on TikTok and see a post of “40 Days” playing to a clip of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet frolicking around Montauk in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind garnering hundreds of thousands of views to know the band’s impact on younger people. But considerin...

Release date: 22 September 2023
8/10
The draw to yeule’s mystifying music exists in their creation of other worlds to explore identity and the healing process.
Nat Ćmiel had a secluded upbringing, experiencing isolation from their peers due to asthma-related difficulties and growing up with OCD. Like many, they took to the internet as an escape and interacted with the world through forums and social networking sites like Tumblr. This was also the start of their artistic avatar, yeule, whose n...

Terminal 5, New York City, NY
09/07/23
Jeff Rosenstock’s music is made for the live performance. The endearing DIY punk hero makes power pop anthems fit for a crumbling world. The Thursday concert came amid a heat wave that had overtaken the East Coast, marking rising temperatures that seem to break records with every year, and an impending U.S. election that somehow may make things even worse than they already are. But Rosenstock and his band have something to say about that, expressing the ...

Since the 1996 release of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, the phrase “based on a true story” carries a certain weight, suggesting a series of preposterous events featuring equally absurd characters. Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose is another entry in this genre where the “talking mongoose” refers to Gef (pronounced Jeff), a magical creature from New Delhi, India that was claimed to reside in a farmhouse owned by the Irving family on the Isle of Man during the early 1930s. Gef became a loca...

While Fremont, California may mostly be known as a residential area for tech employees and the location of Tesla’s first car manufacturing factory, a small section of the city, known as “Little Kabul,” is the home of the largest community of Afghan immigrants in the United States. Fremont follows Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), an Afghan refugee who moved to the city eight months ago after working as a translator for the U.S. Army. She travels to San Francisco for her job as a wrapper in a fortune ...