Claira Curtis

Co- host at House of Cinema Podcast

cohost for the House of Cinema podcast and writer who can’t not scream about women in film!!! THEY/THEM

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Articles

"When we kill him... we kill him slowly."

1 week ago | clairascorner.substack.com | Claira Curtis

Let’s get this out of the way immediately. The Firefly pendants in the the second season of The Last of Us are TOO big. Why are they so big?? Haha lol. No but seriously. Anyway…The Last of Us Part Two is my favorite video game. I’ve played it more times than any other video game. Between the original release and the remastered release, I’ve logged 200+ hours in the game. I’ve beaten it on every difficulty at least once. I’ve beaten it with Permadeath turned on.
‎‘Sukkwan Island’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★ While I appreciate how well Sukkwan Island is at sustaining a mounting sense of dread and discomfort, I don’t think the overall construction here lands. The ending title cards feel a bit like a twist of manipulation, adding context that reframes the entire film and leaves you wondering if there could have been a better way to present these revelations. Swann Arlaud is exceptional, as you’d expect, and I think Woody Norman is portraying his character fairly well too. Touchpoint for a lot of...
‎‘East of Wall’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★ The story of how East of Wall came to be and the blurring lines of documentary and narrative filmmaking fall nicely in step with Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country. Stories like these always make the heart soar a bit higher. There’s something so grounding about seeing pieces of the US that so rarely make it into the cinematic space. The forgotten spaces of our country are so wide and big and awe-inspiring and it’s nice to see a film so dedicated to creating space for them when most would...
‎‘Plainclothes’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★ So embedded in a state of surveillance that you begin to see everything through grainy recorded footage.
‎‘Atropia’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account—for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages (example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!
‎‘The Perfect Neighbor’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★★½ Bill Morrison’s newly Oscar nominated short film, Incident, is constructed through body-cam and cctv footage, a stylistic technique utilized here as well in Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor. I was very curious to see if the structure could sustain itself through a feature length runtime and now I know it most certainly can. Rage-inducing and immensely harrowing in its subject matter and how it chooses to present that subject matter. Sets a fire in your chest that feels all...
‎‘Love, Brooklyn’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★ Hits its stride early and allows us to coast through the streets of Brooklyn and these characters’ lives with a sense of contemplative ease. Synopsis had left me with the impression its examination of a changing Brooklyn would have fallen more into step with something like A Thousand and One’s articulation of a changing city. Instead, Love, Brooklyn maneuvers through its depiction of gentrification with a much quieter approach, which does ultimately leave one aching for a little bit more....
‎‘Omaha’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★ Everything about Omaha hinges on the performances of its two child actors, Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis, who manage to deliver strikingly effective performances. I think parts of this nail the experience of the oldest child in a family struggling financially very well. A lot of moments here are presented with limited context, our insight extending only as far as Ella’s understanding of the situation. She’s observant and pushed to grow up as quickly as possible, the weight of her...
‎‘Bunnylovr’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★★½ “Won’t that hurt her?” “I know what she can handle.” Lots of moments like that in Bunnylovr where the words chosen and the actions performed have masked, crueler intents. Just because she can withstand it, doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. Lethargic apathy draped in a false sense of empowerment. Walks the lines between something extra violent and dangerous without ever stepping too far into the extremes or the overly ordinary. A kaleidoscope of fragmented pieces, different moments dropping...
‎‘LUZ’ review by claira curtis • Letterboxd

2 months ago | letterboxd.com | Claira Curtis

★★½ Of any film at Sundance this year, LUZ is the one whose world feels the most explored and lived in.