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Kaiser Khan

Founder & Editor · Film & Culture

Kaiser Khan is Founder & Editor of Celluloid and founder of Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd, which owns CelluloidScore.com. An entrepreneur and cultural producer, he sets the site’s answer-first editorial standard and transparent four-input Celluloid Score.

Founder & Editor, Celluloid · Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd

Author page (E-E-A-T):

External profile: mrkaiserkhan.com

904 reviews published on Celluloid

Editorial standards: Editorial Policy · Scoring Policy · About & ownership

Reviews by Kaiser Khan · Page 36 of 38

Short review 4 min read English Toni Erdmann

Toni Erdmann (2016) Review: A Father's Longest Joke

Toni Erdmann is Maren Ade's long, excruciatingly funny German comedy about a prankster father and his corporate daughter, and it hides real grief under the gags.

Yes, for patient viewers. It is one of the great cringe comedies, anchored by Sandra Hüller, though its 162 minutes demand commitment.

Short review 4 min read English

Top Boy (2011) Review: Hackney's Drug Trade, Seen Whole

Top Boy is Ronan Bennett's raw, gripping drama about drug dealers on an east London estate, eight tense episodes that treat everyone, dealer or child, as a person.

Yes. It is one of the best British crime dramas of its era, essential for anyone who liked The Wire, though its bleak view of estate life is not easy viewing.

Short review 4 min read English Toss-Up

Toss-Up (2004) Review: Two Soldiers, Two Homecomings

Toss-Up (Yazı Tura) follows two Turkish soldiers who come home wounded from service in the southeast, a bruising, uneven drama about what war leaves behind.

Yes, for viewers drawn to serious Turkish cinema. Its portrait of wounded veterans is powerful, even if the split structure makes it uneven.

Short review 4 min read English Train to Busan

Train to Busan (2016) Review: Panic in Every Carriage

Train to Busan traps a father, his daughter and a carriage of strangers on a speeding train during a zombie outbreak, and it is as moving as it is relentless.

Yes. It is one of the best zombie films of the century, a tense, emotional thriller for horror fans and a great entry point to Korean genre cinema.

Short review 4 min read English Trainspotting

Trainspotting (1996) Review: Addiction at Full Volume

Trainspotting is Danny Boyle's electric, blackly funny film of Irvine Welsh's novel about Edinburgh heroin users, and it still feels dangerous three decades on.

Yes. It is a landmark of 1990s British cinema, thrilling and horrifying at once, for adults who can handle frank drug use and very dark comedy.

Short review 4 min read English Transcendence

Transcendence (2014) Review: Big Ideas, Cold Circuits

Transcendence uploads Johnny Depp's dying scientist into a computer; Wally Pfister's debut looks superb and raises big questions, but it rarely comes alive.

It depends. Fans of idea-driven science fiction may enjoy its questions and handsome visuals, but most viewers will find it slow and emotionally flat.

Short review 4 min read English

Trese (2021) Review: Manila's Supernatural Noir

Trese is Netflix's animated take on the Filipino komiks about occult detective Alexandra Trese, a striking folklore noir whose six episodes feel thinly plotted.

Mostly yes, for fans of adult animation and mythology who want something distinctly Filipino. Expect gorgeous world-building but rushed, uneven storytelling.

Short review 4 min read English TRON: Legacy

TRON: Legacy (2010) Review: A Neon Dream, Thinly Plotted

TRON: Legacy sends Sam Flynn into the digital Grid to find his father; Joseph Kosinski's sequel is a dazzling sound-and-light show with a thin story underneath.

Mostly yes. The design and Daft Punk's score make it a treat on a big screen, though the plot and characters are too thin to carry its 126 minutes.

Short review 4 min read English Tropical Malady

Tropical Malady (2004) Review: A Romance That Turns Feral

Tropical Malady is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's two-part Thai fable, a tender gay romance that becomes a hypnotic jungle legend; mesmerising, if deeply elusive.

Yes, for adventurous viewers. Its split structure and slow, dreamlike second half will lose some audiences, but few films evoke desire and mystery so vividly.

Short review 4 min read English

True Beauty (2020) Review: Makeup, Masks and Crushes

True Beauty is a 16-episode K-drama about a bullied teen who reinvents herself with makeup, a charming, prettily cast high school romance that skims its big themes.

Yes, for fans of breezy high school romance and love triangles. It is warm and funny, though its take on beauty standards is lighter than the premise promises.

Short review 4 min read English Tumbbad

Tumbbad (2018) Review: Folk Horror Soaked in Greed

Tumbbad is a rain-drenched Hindi folk horror film about a man obsessed with a cursed family treasure, and one of Indian cinema's most striking genre achievements.

Yes. It is a gorgeous, genuinely unsettling fable for horror and fantasy fans, even if its characters are thin and its final stretch feels rushed.

Short review 4 min read English

Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022) Review: Youth at Full Lunge

Twenty-Five Twenty-One is a Korean coming-of-age drama about a teenage fencer and a ruined heir, lit up by Kim Tae-ri's ferocious, funny lead performance.

Yes. It is one of the best Korean youth dramas of its decade, ideal for viewers who want sport, friendship and first love told with real ache as well as warmth.

Short review 4 min read English

Twinkling Watermelon (2023) Review: Meeting Dad as a Teen

Twinkling Watermelon is a Korean time-slip drama in which a hearing son of Deaf parents lands in 1995 and meets his father young, told with rare tenderness.

Yes. It is a moving, joyful fantasy drama, best for viewers who like family stories, band-kid nostalgia and time travel that serves feeling rather than puzzles.

Short review 4 min read English Uncut Gems

Uncut Gems (2019) Review: Sandler's Relentless Gamble

Uncut Gems stars Adam Sandler as a New York jeweller who cannot stop betting, and the Safdie brothers make his chaos thrilling, funny and completely exhausting.

Yes, if you can handle the stress. Sandler is extraordinary and the pace is electric, but the film's sheer noise and abrasiveness will wear some viewers out.

Short review 4 min read English

Utopia (2013) Review: Paranoia in Acid Yellow

Utopia is Dennis Kelly's Channel 4 conspiracy thriller about comic-book fans hunted over a manuscript, as striking to look at as it is brutal to sit through.

Yes, with a warning. It is one of British TV's boldest thrillers, ideal for fans of dark conspiracy fiction who can stomach intense violence and an unfinished story.

Short review 4 min read English Distant

Distant (2002) Review: Two Cousins, One Frozen City

Distant (Uzak) is Nuri Bilge Ceylan's spare, wintry Istanbul drama about two lonely cousins sharing a flat, and the quiet breakthrough of a major director.

Yes, for patient viewers. It is a precise, often wryly funny study of loneliness, though its long silences and slow rhythm will test anyone after plot.

Short review 4 min read English Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash Review: Pulp Romance

Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is Edwin's 1980s-style Indonesian pulp romance about a brawler and a fighter, bold, funny and deliberately rough-edged.

Yes. It is a daring, entertaining genre hybrid for viewers who like action, romance and satire in one package, though its episodic second half loses some grip.

Short review 4 min read English Victoria

Victoria (2015) Review: One Take, One Night, No Escape

Victoria follows a young Spanish woman through one Berlin night in a single unbroken take, and Sebastian Schipper's gamble becomes a breathtaking crime thriller.

Yes. It is a technical marvel with a real pulse, gripping for thriller fans and anyone curious about cinema's limits, provided they can ride out a slow first hour.

Short review 4 min read English Viet and Nam

Viet and Nam (2024) Review: Tenderness Underground

Viet and Nam is Trương Minh Quý's hushed Vietnamese romance between two young coal miners, a dreamlike film in which love lives in glances and silence.

Yes. It is a haunting, beautifully made queer romance for viewers who love slow, contemplative cinema; anyone who needs brisk storytelling should look elsewhere.

Short review 4 min read English Vikram

Vikram (2022) Review: A Loud, Lethal Crime Saga

Vikram is Lokesh Kanagaraj's sprawling Tamil action thriller starring Kamal Haasan, Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi, and a thunderous crowd-pleaser at heart.

Yes, for action fans. Its star power, music and set pieces are huge fun, though the nearly three-hour running time and dense plotting demand real stamina.

Ulasan singkat 3 menit baca Bahasa Indonesia Vina: Sebelum 7 Hari

Review Vina: Sebelum 7 Hari (2024): Tragedi Nyata Jadi Horor

Vina: Sebelum 7 Hari karya Anggy Umbara mengangkat kasus pembunuhan nyata di Cirebon lewat bingkai horor. Tegang dan efektif, tetapi caranya patut dipertanyakan.

Cukup layak. Drama kriminal berbalut horor yang tegang dan efektif, untuk penonton dewasa yang siap dengan kekerasan berat dan kisah dari kasus nyata.

Short review 4 min read English Volver

Volver (2006) Review: Almodóvar's Warmest Ghost Story

Volver is Pedro Almodóvar's funny, moving melodrama about Madrid sisters, family secrets and a mother's ghost, with Penélope Cruz at her very best.

Yes. It is one of Almodóvar's most accessible and satisfying films, a treat for fans of character-driven drama with humour, colour and a big heart.

Short review 4 min read English Vulcanizadora

Vulcanizadora (2024) Review: Deadpan Comedy, Real Grief

Vulcanizadora follows two Michigan friends into the woods to carry out a suicide pact; Joel Potrykus's deadpan comedy turns into something genuinely devastating.

Yes. It is a bleak, funny and finally heartbreaking indie for viewers who can handle dark subject matter; anyone sensitive to themes of suicide should take care.

Short review 4 min read English

W (2016) Review: A Hero Who Hunts His Author

W is a Korean fantasy thriller in which a surgeon is pulled into her father's webtoon and meets its hero, a clever metafictional romance with a slippery back half.

Yes. It is one of the most inventive K-drama concepts of the 2010s, best for viewers who enjoy high-concept thrillers and can forgive rules that bend late on.