Michael LaRocco

Marty Supreme  presents itself as a period piece about competitive ping-pong, but its true subject is unmistakably modern: the hunger for recognition and the hollowing effects of celebrity pursued as an end in itself. Ping-pong becomes the perfect arena for Marty’s rise—not because of its inherent stakes, but because it allows him to dominate a small, controllable world and declare himself extraordinary within it. The film tracks his ascent with a cool, almost admiring gaze,

Sinners  is a blues song brought to life as a vampire flick—soulful, blood-soaked, and steeped in Southern mysticism. The reimagining of...

The Substance  is a brilliant work of art that firmly belongs in the tradition of body horror as fine art. My mind is reeling—there’s so...

The Girl with the Needle  directed by Magnus von Horn is a haunting exploration of morality as a slippery slope, where cruelty...

Brutalism is not merely an architectural style, but a metaphor for the raw, unyielding forces that shape the immigrant experience in...

Ramell Ross's film adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys  is a powerful and haunting exploration of the emotional and...

The Zone of Interest  lives and dies by what it refuses to show us. It is this powerful contrast—between what is visible and what is...

James Mangold's extraordinary A Complete Unknown  captures Bob Dylan as the enigma he truly was—part poet, part misfit, part vagabond,...

Man in Polyester Suit is a photograph by American artist and provocateur Robert Mapplethorpe. The photograph is a black and white sepia...