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Joshua Polanski

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Joshua is a freelance film and culture writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His interests include the technical elements of filmmaking & exhibition, slow & digital cinemas, and cinematic sexuality. He writes a lot about non-English cinemas, and his column on Baltic cinema is the only column with regular coverage of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian film in the English language.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (2025) 100% EDIT “Sexuality, race, and even worker rights emerge as important sub-themes to gender equality and, more importantly, celebrating the undertold legacy of Lilith Fair.” – Offscreen Jan 15, 2026 Full Review 100 Sunset (2025) EDIT “100 Sunset tenderly wanders the tight-knit world of Tibetan Ontario. Kunsang Kyirong, the film’s director and a Tibetan-Canadian herself, casts non-actors and lets the world enrapture viewers more than drama and intense emotion.” – Offscreen Jan 15, 2026 Full Review Youngblood (2025) EDIT “Hockey is a game of geography, timing, and spatial relationships, though—and when the cinematography erases the relations of these things to each other, the sport ironically loses its watchability through its cinematization.” – Offscreen Jan 15, 2026 Full Review People We Meet on Vacation (2026) 75% EDIT “These two are one Christmas setting away from stumbling onto a full Hallmark set. ” – In Review Online Jan 14, 2026 Full Review The Great Flood (2025) 56% EDIT “A half-baked science fiction thriller” – In Review Online Jan 6, 2026 Full Review Clash by Night (1952) 61% EDIT “Simply serviceable as a scandalous seaside noir.” – Midwest Film Journal Jan 3, 2026 Full Review Stalker (1979) 100% EDIT “This self-restraint is alien to our present culture of instant gratification, and it’s also a lesson we could always hear again: we don’t always know what is best for ourselves. ” – The Rapidian Dec 30, 2025 Full Review Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) 66% EDIT “The incredible capstone to one of the finest sagas in blockbuster history.” – There Were No Gods Left Dec 16, 2025 Full Review No Other Choice (2025) 97% EDIT “It’s not Park [Chan-wook's] best. But Park is one of our very best. ” – There Were No Gods Left Dec 13, 2025 Full Review Good News (2025) 91% EDIT “Following suit with the slow Marvelization of the South Korean [film] industry, every 10 minutes requires a joke, which only functions to numb the thriller at Good News' core.” – In Review Online Nov 5, 2025 Full Review Yi Yi (2000) 97% EDIT “It’s an impossible task to summarize human life in three hours. And that’s why Yi Yi is often considered one of the greatest films ever made: because Edward Yang tests the impossible.” – Beam from the Booth (Substack) Nov 3, 2025 Full Review The Birds (1963) 95% EDIT “His bird attacks invite an array of valid interpretations, and anyone can well garner new theories ready to be applied to the classic. That’s the genius of the film: they all work and none of them work at the same time. ” – The Rapidian Oct 29, 2025 Full Review The Threesome (2025) 77% EDIT “The Threesome is thematically rich for a film with such a sultry premise.” – In Review Online Oct 2, 2025 Full Review One Battle After Another (2025) 94% EDIT “Maybe the personification of the crisis makes it easier to empathize. It also neutralizes the film’s ability to galvanize.” – The Rapidian Sep 30, 2025 Full Review Dead Lover (2025) 83% EDIT “ Even without the scratch-off cards that the audience can scratch and sniff during a film, the on-screen images are pungent on their own.” – Rue Morgue Magazine Sep 27, 2025 Full Review Karmadonna (2025) EDIT “[Aleksandar] Radivojević has quickly established himself as one of the world’s most obscene filmmakers. If this appeals to you, you already know who you are. Everyone else should stay clear.” – Rue Morgue Magazine Sep 27, 2025 Full Review Aki (2025) EDIT “Aki is a film of abundance... All [Darlene Naponse] needs for her documentary is this beautiful community, the land they live on, and her camera. ” – In Review Online Sep 25, 2025 Full Review Infinite Summer (2024) 88% EDIT “[Infinite Summer] perfectly fits into the contemporary Estonian film landscape with its ironic genre play, strange sexual verve, and popping embrace of quirky digital visuals.” – There Were No Gods Left Sep 25, 2025 Full Review Sholay (1975) 95% EDIT “Experiences like Sholay are why we go to the movies.” – There Were No Gods Left Sep 19, 2025 Full Review Everything Will Be Alright (2023) EDIT “And there’s something both violent and beautiful within [the film's] vulnerability.” – Boston Hassle Sep 17, 2025 Full Review Cat Call (2023) EDIT “The film just isn’t funny. It’s a bit perturbing” – Boston Hassle Sep 17, 2025 Full Review Sacrifice (2025) 38% EDIT “Unlike the best political films, Sacrifice ironically finds itself on the wrong side of the status quo.” – Beam from the Booth (Substack) Sep 17, 2025 Full Review A Useful Ghost (2025) 86% EDIT “Nat’s possession of a vacuum—a symbol of “traditional” domestic gender roles—projects her caregiving intentions, although [Ratchapoom] Boonbunchachoke chooses to simply replicate rather than interrogate these roles.” – Beam from the Booth (Substack) Sep 17, 2025 Full Review Erupcja (2025) 85% EDIT “The warm colors and curious kineticism make the Phoenix City a city of great loves. And the Academy aspect ratio, in turn, boxes in the big emotions Bethany struggles to express. ” – Boston Hassle Sep 17, 2025 Full Review Dog 51 (2025) EDIT “The French in Dog 51 and in real life right now both certainly do something right: fight when their rights are being taken away.” – Boston Hassle Sep 13, 2025 Full Review
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