Ana Yorke

Journalist at PopMatters

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Articles

Berlinale Part 3: The Best Films You Usually Don’t See Coming » PopMatters

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

If there’s anything axiomatic about contemporary Berlin, it’s that things usually don’t go according to plan. Despite Germany’s excellent international PR in the domains of engineering and economic + social stability, on the ground, you’ll witness anything from more than 20% of the population living in poverty, buses never showing up despite announcements, to massive syndicated strikesacross a number of industries.
Berlinale Part 2: Sci-fi Satire, Storytelling Greatness and Muted Grief » PopMatters

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

Following a politically eventful, star-studded takeoff, the 75th edition of Berlinale, one of Europe’s major film festivals, continued in the same outspoken, quirky fashion. On Valentine’s Day, actor Timothée Chalamet sparked pandemonium around the Grand Hyatt at Potsdamer Platz, where hundreds of fans and accredited personnel swarmed, then moshed to get a piece of their idol.
Berlinale Part 1: Bob Dylan, Trauma Drama, and Wartime Romance » PopMatters

1 month ago | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

It is a strange time to be in Berlin. Germany’s capital, for decades known as one of Europe’s social hubs of inclusivity, affordability, and artistic freedom, has been bent into a gentrified, “expat” rather than “immigrant” Mecca with $6 lattes and casually right-wing attitudes.
'Severance' Enhances Performance and Hits High Targets

2 months ago | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

Severance Apple TV+ Dropping the most meticulously crafted TV mystery since LOST and disappearing for three years either means you have egomaniacal confidence (and likely production issues), or you have lost the plot. For Severance, AppleTV+’s biggest hit since Ted Lasso, it was production issues. The series needed time to clear the industry strike hurdles (plus time for rewrites and reshoots) since its debut in early 2022.
Season Four' Subverts the Spy Genre

Nov 12, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

Slow Horses: S4 Apple TV+ “Human capital” is a curious term. How does one determine the “value” of an individual to their organization or country? Can an individual be valuable to a system when the system’s modus operandi ensures nobody is ever indispensable? No. So why all the pretense, then? At first glance, one would not expect Slow Horses, the hilarious Apple TV+ spoof of British intelligence, to take a stab at answering such big political questions.
Nick Cave’s 'Wild Go'd Benevolently Sweeps Through Berlin

Oct 23, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

Wild GodPlay It Again SamMore than 40 years, two dozen albums, and just as many fiction and non-fiction books, screenplays, and exhibitions in, anyone would be tired and likely worn out. Nick Cave, however, is not just anyone and I’ll be damned if the 17,000 folks (and another 12,000 on the second night) in the sold-out Uber Arena in Berlin don’t know this well.
Rock en Seine Sets the Bar High for Music Festivals

Sep 16, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

Paris is hard to beat, especially in the summer. The city of lights, love, fashion, and other bourgeois constructs – easily one of the most attractive holiday locations this side of the Milky Way – takes its cue from the changing seasons to transform into a wonder of life and leisure far more organic than what you get in the glossy, Eiffel Tower-saturated travel blogs.
Folie a Deux, 2073

Sep 13, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

After a bombastic, richly diverse start with a fierce Angelina Jolie as ailing Maria Callas in Maria, the latest of Pablo Larrain’s darkly sentimental flicks about famous women, an uncompromising Nicole Kidman in Halina Reijn’s erotic dramedy Babygirl, and an unhinged Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s nostalgia-driven Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the second part of the Venice Film Festival continued with yet more risque, irreverent releases.
'Wolfs', 'The Brutalist', 'The Room Next Door'

Sep 9, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

There’s nothing quite like Venice at night. The Queen of the Adriatic, unique in the force of sheer opulence that submerges you under the waves of its conspicuous canals, dons a more decadent gown when the sun sets. The blindingly luminous limestone fades into the background, the breeze turns to chill, and the lights inside endless rows of palazzos reveal immense chandeliers, lighting Renaissance motifs, marble monoliths, and fine lumber.
Walter Salles' I'm Still Here Is an Homage to Fearless Women

Sep 4, 2024 | popmatters.com | Ana Yorke

I'm Still HereSony Pictures ClassicsWalter Salles’ tenth feature, based on a horrendous true story, is a momentous tale of the necessity and burden of memorySalles, one of Brazil’s finest filmmakers, has always been a deeply political presence.