Film criticism thrives on discovery, and sometimes the best films are the ones readers bring to me.
For $5 AUD, you can request a critical review of any film of your choice, published on Scene by Green. Each review will be at least 500 words, and written in my usual analytical style.
I’ll do my best to source and watch the film myself, though if you have a suggestion on how to access it, that’s always helpful. If I’m unable to find a way to watch it, you’ll have the option to choose another film or receive a full refund.
Once confirmed, I’ll watch and review the commissioned film, and publish my review within one month.
You’re also welcome to include up to 100 words about why you chose the film or your own thoughts on it. I’ll feature your note alongside my review if you wish. Please also let me know whether or not you’d like to be credited by name as the commissioner.
Note: Commissioning a review does not guarantee any particular rating or verdict — every review will reflect my honest critical opinion.
Commissioned reviews
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The Fall of Otrar (1991)
Through antiquated sepia tones, visceral tactility, and a vast historical sweep, The Fall of Otrar clings to the the sombre, archaic beauty of the Khwarazmian Empire, even as Ardak Amirkulov’s painstaking reconstruction observes its medieval grandeur fade into distant memory.
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Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974)
Shūji Terayama may cast his rural childhood in an array of surreal, kaleidoscopic motifs, yet this memory piece does not yield easily to nostalgia or repression, as Pastoral: To Die in the Country contemplates the unstable, self-reflexive act of reminiscence and its sublimation into art.
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A Touch of Zen (1971)
As King Hu edges towards a spiritual transcendence in A Touch of Zen, wuxia spectacle dissolves into a meditative, cosmic stillness, revealing its worldly struggles between imperial authorities and persecuted fugitives as fleeting dramas within a transient world.
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Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Through Hiroshi Teshigahara’s elemental metaphor in Woman in the Dunes, sand becomes the formless structure of one man’s existential imprisonment, trapping him in a Sisyphean struggle of labour that slowly absorbs him into a primordial, ever-shifting desert.
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Marketa Lazarová (1967)
Although the Christianity of medieval Europe encroaches upon a primordial pagan world in Marketa Lazarová, František Vláčil does not grant moral authority to any single religion, but rather dissolves historical certainty into a fragmented, mythic haze.
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Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
Humanity’s cybernetic ambitions are no match for its darkest impulses in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, as Hiroyuki Imaishi traces one fledgling mercenary’s ascent through Night City’s underworld, and unleashes an assault of neon-lit, hyper-stylised violence.