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CJ Sheu
Tomatometer-approved critic
CJ Sheu is a Taipei-based film critic in English and Mandarin, and a scholar of contemporary American fiction. You can say hi to him on Twitter: @cj_sheu.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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The Moon (2023) |
Is it good? Not really. But the excitement and explosions still manage to deliver. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Past Lives (2023) |
[F]or all the talk of in-yun, the true past life is the one Nora left behind in Korea[.] - The News Lens International
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Small, Slow But Steady (2022) |
Over the course of its 99 minutes, one learns to inhabit Keiko’s quietude, and even begins to feel the power that lies at its center. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Jul 31, 2023
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In Water (2023) |
For those who have no patience [...], Hong is saying that [...] they’re too shortsighted. But for those who are willing to go with it [...], he shows how even the immature work of a nascent artist, crude as it may be, has a charm all its own. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Jul 13, 2023
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Decision to Leave (2022) |
Style is the name of the exposition game[....] What’s a little murder in the face of true love? - The News Lens International
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| Posted Jul 11, 2023
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
[W]hat’s fast becoming this series’ calling card: action sequences that defy all spatial orientation and come at you at the speed of thought while meticulously maintaining coherence and clarity of audience focus. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Jul 04, 2023
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The Conference (2022) |
The film is a tad boring, intentionally so. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Jun 21, 2023
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Dealing with Dad (2022) |
The Americanized grown children of Asian immigrants come to terms with the poor emotional parenting of their father. The real twist isn’t in the premise of the Taiwanese father having depression but rather what if he actually doesn’t have a heart of gold? - The News Lens International
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| Posted May 25, 2023
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Rally Road Racers (2023) |
Yet derivative as it is, a good time can still be had by kids who haven’t seen the films on which it draws. - The News Lens International
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| Posted May 09, 2023
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White Balls on Walls (2022) |
The proceedings keep you on tenterhooks, but nuanced discussions and good faith see them through. ... Vos ... felt it necessary to play devil’s advocate to heighten conflict. Why can’t we just watch a group of conscientious people doing something nice? - Review Film Review
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| Posted Apr 22, 2023
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20th Century Women (2016) |
Mike Mills’s 20th Century Women (2016) is a masterpiece of intuitive plotting. The one part that doesn’t feel complete is Jamie’s (Lucas Jade Zumann) arc. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Apr 20, 2023
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Anime Supremacy! (2022) |
The film stiffs the working class in order to stick it to the man. As for the performances, perhaps the characters have been making children’s shows for too long. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Apr 18, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
Who knew the Wickiverse was a (murderous) utopia? - The News Lens International
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
The real instigator isn’t whimsy, but an encroaching modernity and its sense of linear history. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Apr 04, 2023
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Cyber Heist (2023) |
Given how many Chinese provinces joined the production, if this is the best they can do, Hollywood has nothing to fear. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Return to Seoul (2022) |
Yet despite the broad familiarity of the story and character, the specific details fascinate (arms dealer?!), and Park’s nuanced and layered performance, with some layers contradicting others, is never less than attention-grabbing. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Mar 06, 2023
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The Novelist's Film (2022) |
We feel the purity of art, how isolated the circuit is from the artist to the work and back. The impact of all art is on the individual first, and the burden of creating and fashioning that individual impact is shouldered by each artist in their own way. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (2023) |
What makes it special is the sheer number of Paik’s works excerpted throughout. ... For most of the film’s running time, Paik’s work as conveyed in "Nam June Paik" still looks like it comes from the future. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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Bad Press (2023) |
In an atmosphere of pervasive media bashing, the film reminds us of just how much worse things would be without it. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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5 Seasons of Revolution (2023) |
The development of political protests, from initial fervor to division and abandonment, is well-trodden territory; ... The greatest significance of this film is as an indirect reminder that the Syrian civil war is still ongoing. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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Pianoforte (2023) |
It’s a sturdy if not very innovative documentary. The real winner here is Chopin. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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Mutt (2023) |
Then again, with such a hot-button issue, maybe people do overcompensate, objectify, deploy clichés, and act obtusely. Maybe the one thing that needs more nuance is how Feña’s reactions are written. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Shortcomings (2023) |
[Min] sometimes hams it up a bit too much, but the film is a social comedy, so there’s room for it. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Slow (2023) |
[It] at first struck me as one of those films that could be resolved with an honest conversation, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to see that Elena’s ingrained beliefs about sexuality are the real obstacle. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Fremont (2023) |
[It] has the relaxed pacing, academy ratio, and low contrast black and white images of a Paweł Pawlikowski film, but with copious dollops of deadpan humor satirizing the absurdities of Donya’s situation. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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AUM: The Cult at the End of the World (2023) |
Though staid in structure, the film explores subject matter that never seems to go away. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023) |
When the story goes in one direction, it’s brilliant; but it doesn’t know how to change directions. ... There are hints of real darkness, but none are explored. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Cat Person (2023) |
Is the film good? I have no idea. It does something arguably even more important, as my laughing and cringing can attest to: It pins down the very idea of emotional ambiguity. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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Kim's Video (2023) |
[O]ne of the best documentaries I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, if not the best. Like all good documentaries, it’s not just a passive record, but an active guiding of the viewer to create a sense of discovery at each revelation. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Feb 04, 2023
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At Long Last Love (1975) |
[F]un, witty, captivating. ... As is extremely evident, the actors are all having a ball, especially Shepherd. ... It’s great fun all around[.] - Review Film Review
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| Posted Jan 10, 2023
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The Thieves (2012) |
The heist film peaked with Choi Dong-hoon’s The Thieves (도둑들), released ten years ago this month. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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Autobiography (2022) |
As the title suggests, this is a portrait of not just a man but a nation. . . . Yet this allegory is nuanced. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Ajoomma (2022) |
Co-written by director He Shuming with Kris Ong, it’s a farcical road trip drama where it seems like anything (but mostly bad stuff) can happen, though by the end little sticks in the mind. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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The Narrow Road (2022) |
We’ve seen this film countless times, just not in a pandemic setting. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Nov 15, 2022
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August at Akiko's (2018) |
This personal trauma is of a piece with the historical trauma of Hawai‘i. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Oct 29, 2022
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Au Revoir Taipei (2010) |
It’s my favorite Taiwan film. [...] it’s one of the few contemporary films to nail a natural-sounding Taiwanese Mandarin. - Critics at Large
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| Posted Sep 19, 2022
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Deep Impact (1998) |
It’s a melodrama more than an action thriller. The surprise is that it does melodrama so well. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Sep 05, 2022
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Becoming Iconic (2018) |
Don’t watch it. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Aug 30, 2022
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Inconceivable (2017) |
Baker was given only fifteen days to shoot, [...] so it’s a miracle we have such an entertaining film at all, artistry be damned. At the end of the day, if the only significant valid complaint is a bad wig, that’s not too shabby for a first outing. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Aug 30, 2022
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Top Gun: Maverick (2022) |
After Cruise and McQuarrie perfected the action thriller with Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018), now they’re back (along with [director Joseph Kosinski and] some other screenwriters and story originators) to perfect the hero’s farewell. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Aug 29, 2022
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Formosa Betrayed (2009) |
I think the only value of this film is as an excuse for people who know more about Taiwan (like me) to talk about what actually happened. - The News Lens International
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| Posted Aug 19, 2022
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Gerry (2002) |
What makes Gerry worth watching is in how it perfectly captures what it’s like to get lost in the wilderness. - Critics at Large
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| Posted Aug 19, 2022
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1 Dimension (2013) |
[N]ot only have you never seen anything like it, you’ve probably never heard this exact story either, though the archetypes will be familiar. Or at least <i>seem</i> familiar. - Critics at Large
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| Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Death of a Shadow (2012) |
Death of a Shadow (2012) is a paragon of economical world building. [...] [T]the actors play it straight and are earnest enough to keep the clichés more or less at bay. - Critics at Large
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| Posted Jul 14, 2022
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Margaret (2011) |
[This] is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a William Gaddis adaptation, [...] [in which people] talk to each other and to Lisa [an astounding Anna Paquin], and Lisa talks to them, but nobody’s listening. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Jul 07, 2022
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Pleasure (2021) |
[The film] makes her journey more cautionary tale than character study. [...] If it exposes anything, it’s the [adult film] industry’s over-reliance on explicit consent as the minimum requirement. - Review Film Review
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| Posted Jun 01, 2022
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The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) |
By focusing only on what the camera sees, we miss the bigger picture, despite nagging intuitions that something's amiss. [...] <i>Draughtsman</i> is thus a warning to the arrogant interpreter. - Review Film Review
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| Posted May 30, 2022
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Practical Magic (1998) |
Few films have such warmth and purity of heart, which are buoyed by its fabular storybook quality[.] - Review Film Review
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| Posted May 29, 2022
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Ink & Linda (2022) |
This is the hidden kernel of the film: how two completely dissimilar people can still bond over a common project. [...] It may be conventional in form, but <i>Ink & Linda</i> tells a radical story. - The News Lens International
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| Posted May 26, 2022
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Bo Burnham: Inside (2021) |
Burnham has proven himself a master director. [...] If he’s really reached the zenith of his musical comedy, I hope he jumps into film with both feet. - Review Film Review
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| Posted May 07, 2022
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