The Best Films of 2025
Like life itself in these times the visceral, the absurd, and the morbid all take their rightful place in our eclectic compilation of Best Films 2025.
Park Chan-wook
‘The Sympathizer’ Fractures Identity into a Knockout Kaleidoscopic Tale
The mini-series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s kaleidoscopic tale The Sympathizer is a knockout account of colonialism, war, and (the loss of) identity.
Park Chan-wook’s ‘JSA: Joint Security Area’ Fights Violence with Brotherhood
Park Chan-wook’s South Korean thriller ‘Joint Security Area’ shows us how easy it could be to build a brotherhood with our enemies.
The Best Films of 2016
PopMatters presents a list of the best films that surfaced in 2016 and impressed us with their cinematic visions of where we’ve been.
‘The Handmaiden’ Is a Dark Carnival of Delights
Park Chan-wook's elegantly mounted Gothic story, The Handmaiden, surprisingly combines sensuous melodrama and a delightfully full-blown romanticism.
The Value of Exploitation: Of Puppies and Pornography, Violence and Vixens
Guess which two characters appeared in the half hour trailer featured at E3 for Metal Gear Solid V? Diamond Dog and the Quiet. Guess why? You shouldn't have to guess.