Zachary Lee

5 days ago | chicagocriticsfilmfestival.com | Zachary Lee

Two directorial debuts at this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival share an existential synergy in offering terrifying variations on the road trip movie. Alexander Ullom’s It Ends follows four recent college grads, James (Phinehas Yoon), Tyler (Mitchell Cole), Fisher (Noah Toth), and Day (Akira Jackson) who embark on a late-night drive together before they go their separate ways.

1 week ago | undertheradarmag.com | Zachary Lee

Web Exclusive At the peak of its Oscar run, the Criterion Collection announced that director Sean Baker’s Anora would enter its ranks. I was surprised, not because it was undeserving. Still, the turnover rate seemed so soon, as if Criterion was christening the film into its ranks prematurely, given all the other films it could have included.

2 weeks ago | rogerebert.com | Zachary Lee

At any given film festival, I look forward to discovering the thematic connections between the films that have been programmed. Take last year's Chicago Critics Film Festival, whose opening night film, " Sing Sing," and closing night film, " Ghostlight," both ruminated on the healing power of community theater.

2 weeks ago | joysauce.com | Zachary Lee

On March 31st,Trans Day of Visibility, I was struck by a quote I saw on my Instagram feed: “Visibility without protection is a trap. While calls for visibility for stories from underrepresented communities are vital, without the infrastructure to support or protect those creatives from harm, such visibility can come at a great cost.”I reflected on the importance of protection and visibility while watching Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, a reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 film of the same name.

2 weeks ago | rogerebert.com | Zachary Lee

One throughline of Welsh director Gareth Evans' films is their punishing bleakness. Best known for the Indonesian crime martial arts films like " The Raid" and its sequel, Evans' films linger on moments where many would turn their lens elsewhere. Take a moment in " Apostle " where we see a youth get publicly executed by having a drill burrowed deep into his skull; we feel every time the metal twists pierces bone.