The 36th Chamber of Shaolin + The Hero’s Journey
At its core, The 36th Chamber is a tale of transformation through discipline. San Te enters the Shaolin temple as a fugitive. What he discovers within its walls is more than simply a set of…
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The Fountain + Perennialism
Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is not a film about death. It is a film about what lies beyond it. Across three interwoven timelines, the film traces the journey of Tomas and Isabel through…
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Woman in the Dunes + The Absurd
Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes is a suffocating, hypnotic film about entrapment, survival, and, ultimately, Pushing on no matter the circumstance. It’s a story that unfolds like a…
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The Tree of Life + Nature vs Grace
Terrence Malick’s magnum opus The Tree of Life is striving to be more than a film; it is a philosophical meditation. One which doesn’t unfold in the traditional sense but drifts like memory,…
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Predator + the Übermensch
If you strip Predator down to its core, beneath the layers of mud, blood, and 80s action bravado, what emerges is a tale as old as time—survival, a story of predator versus prey, the hunter…
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Stalker + Art
Andrei Tarkovski's Stalker is a profound journey through existential, metaphysical, and epistemological themes which, compelled by its transcendental style, implores its audience to meditate,…
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Bram Stoker’s Dracula + The Sublime
The sublime is summarized by Simon Morley in his article A Short History of the Sublime (as that which) underlies the nobility of Classicism, the awe of Romantic nature, and the terror of the…
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Embrace of the Serpent + Knowledge
There’s a moment in Ciro Guerra’s masterpiece, Embrace of the Serpent, where silence becomes the most profound source of knowledge. Silence uninterrupted by the cranking of a gramophone. The…
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Lady Bird + Attention
In the 2017 film Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig offers a heartfelt portrait of a young woman. A coming-of-age semi-autobiographical tale set in Sacramento. The film has been celebrated for its…
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Ordet + Faith
Carl Theodor Dreyer's film Ordet released in 1955 as The Word stands out as a powerful portrayal of faith and doubt in the annals of cinema's history. One in which Dreyer explores the spaces…
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