Anna McKibbin

United Kingdom

Contributor at Paste

Writer at Freelance

There's a new Rosebud in town! she/her

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Articles

The Wedding Banquet remake sees queerness get comfortable

3 days ago | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

The final shot of Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet is a singular indication of a generation’s unprecedented romantic hopes. Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao), his boyfriend Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein), and his sham wife Wei-Wei (May Chin) are arm in arm as they watch Wai-Tung’s parents disappear up an airport walkway. Both the elder Gaos and the younger trio are crying, but Wai-Tung’s parents refuse to look back, barreling forward.
Aardman Animations maintains its stop-motion ideal of a simpler England

Jan 3, 2025 | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

Reflecting on the genre-bending success of his 1989 college project A Grand Day Out, filmmaker Nick Park claimed that the inspiration was relatively simple. “I had this idea about an English guy who builds a rocket, and the joke was he built it in the basement of his house. I was thinking he may have a pet, probably a cat…” The genesis of the Academy Award-winning duo Wallace and Gromit is that simple: an Englishman, a pet, and a project.
London Film Festival Review: Andrea Arnold's 'Bird'

Oct 18, 2024 | vaguevisages.com | Anna McKibbin

2020s Vague Visages’ Birdreview contains minor spoilers. Andrea Arnold’s 2024 movie features Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski and Barry Keoghan. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews. *British filmmaker Andrea Arnold has always been obsessed with innocence — the idea of it, who gets to experience it,where it goes. All of her films attempt to capture naïveté’s spectre, lending a tangible presence, the kind necessary to be rendered cinematic.
A killer represents misogyny’s magnitude in Anna Kendrick’s Woman Of The Hour

Oct 18, 2024 | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

One of the first images in Woman Of The Hour, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, is actually a shot within a shot. A young woman poses amidst the Wyoming landscape, a spark of white linen against the beige, rocky backdrop. She poses, her arms hanging, gazing into the camera as she tearfully divulges her backstory. This is one of Rodney Alcala’s (Daniel Zovatto in the film) many victims, vulnerable and pretty and desperate to be seen.
London Film Festival Review: Sean Baker's 'Anora'

Oct 13, 2024 | vaguevisages.com | Anna McKibbin

2020s Vague Visages’ Anorareview contains minor spoilers. Sean Baker’s 2024 movie features Mikey Madison, Paul Weissman and Lindsey Normington. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews. *The first 10 minutes of Anora spotlight fluorescent smiles, smoke breaks and dressing room gossip.
Sleep throws back to the mysterious horror impulses of Cat People

Sep 30, 2024 | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

Shirley Jackson once in her journal: “who wants to write about anxiety from a place of safety? although, i suppose i would never be entirely safe since i cannot completely reconstruct my mind.” That verb “reconstruct” is an apt one for Jackson, whose most famous novel The Haunting Of Hill House follows characters stuck in the winding, shifting halls of a haunted mansion.
Babygirl brilliantly captures the feeling of falling in lust

Sep 3, 2024 | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

A laptop sits at the edge of the frame, its glow casting shadows across Romy (Nicole Kidman). Porn is playing. There are glimpses of a woman on all fours, gazing behind her at a man who coaxes her on with sneering encouragement. But the images are less important than the tinny voice emanating from them. “Do you like this kind of sex?” the man asks. Emotions scramble across Romy’s face, looking for a perch. (Post-coital satisfaction? Disdain?
Phantosmia - first-look review

Sep 2, 2024 | lwlies.com | Anna McKibbin

About Little White Lies Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reinvigorates Tim Burton’s stale brand, returning to practical playfulness

Aug 28, 2024 | avclub.com | Anna McKibbin

There’s a house, on a street, in a town, next to a river—or is it a model of a house, on a street, in a town, next to a river? Is this model a recreation of something real, or a ghostly apparition in itself? Are we driving down this street, suspended above a replica, or floating through something else altogether? These are the questions provoked in the opening moments of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice and mirrored in the first scene of the sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
It Ends With Us review - struggles to grapple with its heavy themes

Aug 7, 2024 | lwlies.com | Anna McKibbin

Directed by Justin BaldoniStarring Blake Lively Jenny Slate Justin Baldoni The audiobook had kept me hooked with bizarre details and turns of phrase, but it was also a slog to get through. It’s always going to be nice to watch attractive people kiss, but when the story insists on being about “more” it feels unwieldy and punishing. It is exactly as good as you would expect a Colleen Hoover adaptation starring Blake Lively in a big red wig to be: not very. Share this