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Dear Stranger (2025) ‘BIFF’ Movie Review: A Layered Portrait of Marital Discontent, Fragile Masculinity, and Bourgeois Anxieties

Akash Deshpande September 18, 2025

Featured · Review

One Battle After Another (2025) Movie Review: An Exhilarating Neo-Western Chase Through A Fractured America

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025
Featured · Review

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) Movie Review: Kogonada’s Beautiful Visuals Can’t Save This Misguided Charlie Kaufman Pastiche

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025

Evergreen Lists

Monster (2023) | 10 Unconventional Coming-of-Age Movies Worth Exploring

10 Unconventional Coming-of-Age Movies Worth Exploring

September 15, 2025

The World Before Her (2012, Directed by Nisha Pahuja) | 10 Best Documentaries to Experience India Like Never Before

10 Best Documentaries to Experience India Like Never Before

September 5, 2025

Apurbajyoti Tanti

The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) | The Conjuring Universe Movies (Inlcuding The Conjuring: Last Rites), Ranked

The Conjuring Universe Movies (Inlcuding The Conjuring: Last Rites), Ranked

September 9, 2025

Reviews

Featured · Film Festivals · Review

Dear Stranger (2025) ‘BIFF’ Movie Review: A Layered Portrait of Marital Discontent, Fragile Masculinity, and Bourgeois Anxieties

Akash Deshpande September 18, 2025
Featured · Review

One Battle After Another (2025) Movie Review: An Exhilarating Neo-Western Chase Through A Fractured America

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025
Featured · Review

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) Movie Review: Kogonada’s Beautiful Visuals Can’t Save This Misguided Charlie Kaufman Pastiche

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025
Featured · Film Festivals · Review · TIFF

In Search of the Sky (Vimukt, 2025) ‘TIFF’ Movie Review: Blue Horizons of Hope and Exclusion

Bipasha Bhattacharyya September 17, 2025
Review

Waltzing with Brando (2024) Movie Review: Billy Zane’s Incredible Marlon Brando Impersonation Elevates A Lightweight Comedy

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025
Film Festivals · Review · TIFF

Under the Same Sun (Bajo el bismo sol, 2025) ‘TIFF’ Movie Review: Ulises Porra’s Sobering Humane Survival Drama Features Lived-in Performances but Lacks Bite

Akash Deshpande September 13, 2025

Essays

Column · Featured

A Tribute To Robert Redford: An Icon Of Decency, Compassion, and Service Who Offered An Optimistic Future for Hollywood

Liam Gaughan September 17, 2025
Column

The Soundtrack of Privilege: Here’s How Highest 2 Lowest Uses Music to Divide Class and Culture

Naveed Zahir September 14, 2025
Column

Confluence Of Fractured Existence: The Invisible Thread Connecting Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” And Ray’s “Nayak”

Subhankar Das September 14, 2025

All Posts

Irma Vep Episode 2 Recap Ending Explained (1)

Disney+ · Max · TV

Irma Vep Episode 2: Recap & Ending Explained

The Offer Episode 10

TV · TV Recaps

The Offer (2022) Episode 10: Review, Recap & Ending Explained

Guidance (2022) Review – Black Mirrroesque Take On The Advent Of Intrusive Technology

The idea of a hunt is to track and kill an animal for food or leisure. It happens to be one of the most primitive life hacks that have sustained human beings through centuries. Traditionally, hunting is directly proportional to the display of masculine prowess. It, after all, requires you to display your capabilities to be patient, think on the go, bring upon violence, and provide for women and children, who are believed to be inferior to men. Hunting unites the physical and mental resilience of a human being under one roof. Directed by Robert Machoian (who is very famous for his film, The Killing of Two Lovers), this 1 hour 36 minutes-long movie, The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, is the story of a man out to hunt for his family. It makes for a riveting but slow, predictable watch because it beautifully deconstructs masculinity in the face of the age-old tiff between man and nature. Joseph wakes up before dawn. He shaves his moustache to give himself a unique masculine look. He packs his bag. He kisses his wife and sons goodbye. He leaves home to hunt. He has, we come to know, never hunted before. The moment he steps foot inside the forest, it starts becoming evident that he is a misfit in the environment around him. Soon, he has hunted an unconventional prey. At the end of the film, will he be able to place this meat on the family dinner table? Machoian strips down the story to its bare bones like a slice of well-cooked meat. However, it tastes so bland that you'll forget midway through this film that you were here on a different trail. The film transitions from being dedicated to the act of hunting to the story of a man tormented mentally by the same act. While Clayne Crawford plays the protagonist in this film and is literally present in every scene, it is the background score that stole the spotlight for me. Rich natural sounds of birds, insects, and human beings in association with a desolate forest area produce an orchestra that is highly captivating. It dips and soars and reacts to Joseph's actions in a unique way, almost as if it were a character in the film itself. In fact, in a few scenes, the horror of hunting is captured only through its musical element. The cinematography by Oscar Ignacio Jiménez attempts to make up for the lack of narrative integrity in this film. Curiously, the frames that capture Joseph in the wilderness become tighter by the minute. The day transitions from dawn to dusk in the course of the film, with natural light filtering the frames and keeping us informed about the hour of the day. In one scene when Joseph can spot a deer at a distance, its colour camouflages with the vegetation on this land. Since then, whenever Joseph is looking around to spot a deer, I was forced to become alert. It is certainly one of the better ways to keep our attention glued to the screen as the plot starts to ebb in quality in the second half. Joseph, played by Crawford, is the plot of a major chunk of the film. He is loving and ready to set out on a hunt for the sake of his family, the role of a male provider in the hetero-patriarchal world. I was only starting to think that the film is interested in exploring the complex relationship between a hunter and its prey and man against nature, when it takes a turn and starts to pick on Joseph's psychological state. However, the most interesting aspect about him is that he holds up the image of a man we don’t expect to go hunting. For example, he takes so much time and self-convincing to go close to the prey he has shot. He is ill-prepared to use his hunting kit but takes pride in carrying it around with him, lost in daydreaming. He is neither patient in his hunting efforts nor strong. In fact, when he realises that he finally has a prey, no matter how unconventional, he breaks down in tears. This entire sequence was comical to me but in a sinister way. I cannot thank the film enough for showing that hunters are not any special brunch of inimitable men. It separates the perceived markers of masculinity from Joe’s character and presents us with a flawed human being who wishes not to run and hide in the face of a wrong committed. Crawford’s expressive acting, coupled with the background score, makes this film all about him, the one-man-army. Every other character comes and goes like the deer in the film, speaking their parts which ultimately don't bind well into the narrative. The 'integrity' of any human being refers to the strong moral character of a person. With the allotted title of the film, there is little scope for imagination or curiosity. It tends to give away the plot. If the film did not have a paper-thin narrative and pursued the threads of cannibalism, man v/s nature, or sarcastic treatment of the title, it would have perhaps been a far better watch. The Integrity of Joseph Chambers premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, 2022. Stars: 3.5/5

Film Festivals · Review · Tribeca

The Integrity of Joseph Chambers (2022) Tribeca Review: Not the Most Interesting Story of a Man at Hunt

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Land of Gold [2022] 'Tribeca'

Film Festivals · Review · Tribeca

Land of Gold [2022] ‘Tribeca’ Review: A Brilliant, Bittersweet Addition To The Surrogate Parent-Child Road Trip Genre

Abandoned (2022) Movie Review - 1

Films This Week · Review

Abandoned (2022) Review: A strong horror debut that deserves to be seen

Barry Season 3 Episode 8

Max · Streaming Now · TV · TV Recaps

Barry Season 3 Episode 8(Finale): Recap, Ending Explained, and Season Review

Gaslit Episode 8 Series Finale Recap Ending Explained (1)

Lionsgate Play · Streaming Now · TV · TV Recaps

Gaslit (Series Finale), Episode 8: Recap & Ending Explained

THREE HEADED BEAST

Film Festivals · Review · Tribeca

Three Headed Beast [2022]: ‘Tribeca’ Review – A Quiet And Sensual Examination Of Open Relationships