A Stroll Along a Street in Film

By Dharma Senn

We walk along streets for a considerable part of our lives. Metaphorically, of course, as well. One foot in front of the other, carrying ourselves towards our goals. Some prefer bikes or cars instead. Others like to take their time.

But metaphors really have no place on nights where the autumn cold makes us feel giggly, and the lights of advertisements make us contemplative. Faces pass us by, faces we forget the instant they move out of our view. Some of them linger for a few more seconds in the back of our minds and then vanish softly. 

Our feet are planted firmly on the ground. The camera accompanying us moves silently about. People look at its lens, see their own reflection in the camera’s eye. Zürich is always full of people, even at night. The city never sleeps.

The Death of the Dog and The Thing About Training Wheels

By Dharma Senn

Dogs, young children, occasionally cats: they seem to be untouchable by the gritty hands of narrative death. If a film dares to kill one of the above, all bets are off. But when has film ever cared about conventionality?

The dog dies. Tears flow. Usually.

In today’s narratives, dogs are often brought up whenever a certain natural setting is involved. In her 2002 essay, “Good Dog: The Stories We Tell about Our Canine Companions and What They Mean For Humans and Other Animals”, Karla Armbuster suggests that dogs as domestic animals are seen as existing on the thin line between nature and culture. In turn, “the dog’s perceived position on the nature/culture boundary promises modern humans a connection to nature that has otherwise largely been lost” (353).

Therefore, adventure films like The Call of the Wild (2020, dir. Chris Sanders) utilize the dynamic between human, animal and the wilderness in their narrative, as survival stands on screen as a central theme.  We fear for the dog because it is a protagonist, because its struggles are just as clearly articulated as its owner’s. The dog serves as a mediator between nature and culture, and helps its human survive. Naturally, the dog survives as well, or its death is emotionally affecting for the viewer.

 But what if the dog in question is not a helpful protagonist? What if nature is not a threat? What if it is not a narrative of survival, but one of growing up? 

I Watched Tiger King and I Have… Feelings

By Fabia Morger

Oh, to be young again! There are some university courses I’d retake in a heartbeat if I had the chance. One of them is the Bachelor-level class “Language Skills and Culture II” of our English department. Attending the classes was pure enjoyment for me: it gave me a chance to re-watch so many of my favorite movies from a more theoretical angle and gain a deeper understanding of the cultures that had shaped them. One text that stayed in my mind even years later, is Warren Buckland’s “The Non-Fiction Film: Five Types of Documentaries”. It was this text that made me aware of how documentaries are not an objective record of real events and how choices made by documentary filmmakers shape the way we look at the events presented to us, even if they are supposedly non-fiction. And, boy, what movie better showcases this than the legendarily popular documentary series Tiger King?

The Best Films of the 2010s

By Alan Mattli

I’ve been looking forward to compiling my “Best Films of the Decade” list pretty much since the first days of 2010, after I, still in the early stages of my life as a film critic, had seen these kinds of lists posted about the 2000s – a ritual I couldn’t in good conscience take part in because, well, I was eight years old at the turn of the millennium and I never had done the necessary catching-up. I still haven’t, for that matter.

So I am thrilled to finally be able to present my selection of the best films of the 2010s – a compendium of 100 works that stuck in my mind, that haunted me, that moved me, that I still passionately rewatch. And as is often the case with lists, this one, too, would probably look vastly different if I were to present it on another day, so this selection and especially the individual placements are but snapshots in time.

Chinese Drama: “The Princess Weiyoung”

Looking for movies or series to watch, I have stumbled upon The Princess Weiyoung, Chinese TV-series (2016). It can be found on Netflix and, surprisingly, online. A catch: the series were not synchronized. Therefore, I was excited to hear Mandarin and prepared to follow (English) subtitles.

The Best Films of 2018

By Alan Mattli

According to my Letterboxd account, which I’ve started cultivating in earnest in 2018, I spent roughly 378 hours of said year watching movies – 206 of them, to be exact – averaging four viewings per week. Now, as the year has drawn to a close, it’s time once again to pick my favourites from that selection, as I’ve done on The Zurich English Student for the past seven years (’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16, ’17). In 2018, I landed on a comparatively modest set of 15 films, though that is the result of perhaps a more rigorous decision-making process than in the past, which led to the shutout of such high-quality offerings as Steve McQueen’s Widows, Xavier Legrand’s Custody, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

As usual, my list differs from those by the likes of David Ehrlich or Priscilla Page – to name just two of my favourite critics – in that it is missing a few essential players from the 2018–19 awards season (The Favourite, If Beale Street Could Talk) and instead includes a few familiar titles from last year’s Oscar campaign. The reason for this is the same as ever: my list adheres to the Swiss release schedule, which all too rarely coincides with its U.S. equivalent. So what follows are my top ten films that opened in Switzerland in 2018, preceded by five honourable mentions (highlighted in bold).

What Was the “Matrix” Trilogy All About?

By Gabriel Renggli

The Matrix movies are a strange beast. The Matrix redefined the action genre, using cinematography, choreography, costumes, and special effects to raise shoot-outs and punch-ups to new levels of stylisation. The Matrix Reloaded was bigger, louder, and less focused, but cool enough to have our teenage selves excited, for the most part. The Matrix Revolutions was my first big lesson in how thoroughly an anticipated production can let down its fan base. Revolutions helped to get underway some considerable backlash, as people started looking more critically at the other two films, too. By now, the consensus seems to be that we allowed ourselves to be taken in by a case of form over substance. As in: boy, did these films ever look good, but, boy, did they make no sense at all from a story-telling or philosophical point of view.

“Black Panther” and “Isle of Dogs”: The Limits of My Criticism

By Alan Mattli

NOTE: This is a translation of my own article, originally published in German.

What do Ryan Coogler’s Marvel blockbuster Black Panther and Wes Anderson’s stop-motion adventure Isle of Dogs have in common? Well, there’s the fact that both titles feature animals. Oh, and both are American films that, crucially, are set outside the United States. But the two most important similarities are about reception: not only are both movies among the year’s best so far; few other releases generated as much discussion in the media. You’d think that this fact, along with my opinion of the two films, would be more than cogent reasons for me to review them.

However, since February, when I saw both works for the first – and not the last – time, I’ve been putting off writing about them, even though I’m less than enthusiastic about the thought of letting two five-star movies pass me by without comment. The reason for this is not a lack of intriguing talking points or stylistic choices but the knowledge of not being able to add anything meaningful to the existing discourse.

The Great and Terrible Beauty of “Annihilation”

By Alan Mattli

Warning: This review contains major spoilers.

An ambitious and overwhelming tale of biological hybrids and a cinematic hybrid itself, a curious case of Apocalypse Now-meets-Under the Skin, Alex Garland’s sci-fi horror film Annihilation, a Netflix exclusive outside of North America and China, is something of a masterpiece. Based on the eponymous novel by Jeff VanderMeer, Garland’s sophomore directing effort expands upon the subdued, slow-burning intensity of his 2015 debut, the brilliant Ex Machina, and fully commits to the idea that in some stories, suggestiveness, abstraction, and open questions trump neat resolutions.

Plenty of commentators take issue with what Garland has attempted here (just take a look at the IMDb reviews), with some criticising the film for its supposed failings as an adaptation while others dwell on what they perceive to be immersion-breaking plot holes. Some also make more valid points, mainly highlighting issues with the script, which is fair enough: its language is functional, steely and stylised, which works a treat in some instances but jars in others.

But here’s what strikes me after three viewings of this extraordinary movie: I don’t care.

Review: “The Disaster Artist”

By Alan Mattli

If, for whatever reason, you have managed to elude the pop-cultural phenomenon known as The Room, here is the short version: in 2003, Tommy Wiseau, a mysterious and inexplicably rich eccentric of possibly Eastern European descent, poured millions of dollars into the making of a romantic drama film called The Room. Written, directed, and produced by, and starring Wiseau, it made less than $2,000 during its two-week run but later gained an international cult following for being hilariously awful in every respect.

Naturally, such an artefact, whose release and subsequent rise in popularity coincided with the dawn of Web 2.0, is ripe for mythologizing. People wondered how such an atrocity could ever get made.