La Belle Saison (2016)
The premise reads like arthouse erotica: a French farmgirl moves to Paris, falls in love with another woman, has a lot of sex.
Full-Fledged Fanservice: To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd
The fourth season of To Love-Ru takes fanservice to the extreme.
Adolescent Selfishness and Sexuality in Sailor Moon R
Sailor Moon R is a complex representation of teenage coming-of-age, satirising and celebrating the solipsistic tendencies of youth.
Always Shine (2016)
Sophia Takal’s Always Shine opens with one of the best sequences of the year.
High School DXD BorN
Someone decided that a frothy fanservice anime needed to emulate Neon Genesis Evangelion’s labyrinthine seriousness. Someone was wrong.
The Alluring Ambiguity of Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper
Personal Shopper offers a challenging reflection upon identity and spirituality, enriched by Kristen Stewart’s extratextual resonance with its themes. Also, there are ghosts.
Nocturnal Animals Peels Back Layers of Fiction and Reality
It’s safe to say that Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals was one of my most anticipated films of 2016. It did not disappoint.
Maken-ki! Two is Sexy, Silly, Self-Aware Fanservice Fun
Maken-ki!’s second season is densely packed with boobs, innuendo and more boobs. It’s trashy, but it’s a whole lot of fun.
Double Feature: One Wild Moment (2015) and Blame It On Rio (1984)
Two films remaking the same story of an older man sleeping with his friend’s daughter and, weirdly, the 2015 one is less progressive than the 1984 movie.
Melon Monsters and Nice Guys: The Strained Sexual Politics of Motto To-Love-Ru
Those who’ve followed this site for a while will have noticed that all the coverage of contemporary cinema is periodically punctuated by reviews of fanservice anime. In my first such review – of Ikkitousen’s third season – I made a serious attempt to grapple with the politics of a genre operating in the vein of…
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