Cold Open · Essay · feb 20, 2025

Is the Monkey Better Than Longlegs?

Oz Perkins has become horror cinema's most interesting director — and The Monkey, his latest, leaves Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael with a productive ambivalence: is he a filmmaker who can't land an ending, or is the open ending the whole point? The episode also brings dispatches from Cannes, where Hugo spoke with Jia Zhang-ke about Caught by the Tides — a film Hugo finds transcendental and Laura suspects might be slightly too pleased with itself. A Review Roundup in which the conversation is the discovery.

By Laura Gommans

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema

In this review roundup, hosts Laura Gommans and Hugo Emmerzael dive into three films that have caught their attention. Oz Perkins’ latest offbeat horror, The Monkey, leaves them both questioning if the American director knows how to land an ending. Hugo shares insights from his Cannes conversation with Jia Zhang-ke about his latest work, Caught by the Tides. But while Hugo sees something transcendental, Laura isn’t so convinced—questioning whether it’s all just pretension and an easy ride to the Cannes Film Festival. Finally, they close with Payal Kapadia’s fiction feature debut, All We Imagine as Light – a film that moved both hosts, though for very different reasons. (No surprises there!)

Subscribe to our podcast