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Articles by Orla Smith

Orla Smith is the former Executive Editor of Seventh Row, a regular contributor at The Film Stage, and a freelance writer with bylines at JumpCut Online, Cinema Year Zero, and Girls on Tops. In her free time she makes movies.

The Assistant, Kitty Green, sound design

Orla Smith / May 7, 2020

The Assistant: Kitty Green on making an office sound sinister

Kitty Green discusses crafting the sound design of The Assistant by recording office sounds and using them to create tension and discomfort.

Disclosure Trans Lives on Screen, Dungarees, BFI Flare 2020

Orla Smith / April 25, 2020

BFI Flare 2020 highlights: Disclosure and more trans stories

BFI Flare 2020 took place entirely online. Orla Smith highlights Dungarees (dir. Abel Rubinstein) and Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (dir. Sam Feder) as the best of the online festival.

Wendy and Lucy, Lean on Pete, Kelly Reichardt, Andrew Haigh, Modern westerns

Orla Smith / April 8, 2020

Modern westerns: Andrew Haigh and Kelly Reichardt are deromanticizing the west

Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete shares DNA with Kelly Reichardt’s westerns (e.g. Wendy and Lucy): both filmmakers are making modern westerns that deromanticize tired western tropes. This is an excerpt from our ebook on Lean on Pete. We will soon publish an ebook on the works of Kelly Reichardt.

Feel Good, Mae Martin

Orla Smith / March 27, 2020

Feel Good is a TV rom-com that skips the honeymoon stage

Mae Martin’s Feel Good is a rom-com about addiction and queer identity that’s more interested in staying together than it is in the honeymoon phase.

Orla Smith / March 12, 2020

Review: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and dreamers thwarted by capitalism

Kelly Reichardt’s latest film about the myth of the American West, First Cow, follows two men searching for a better life elsewhere that’s always just slightly out of reach.

Lana Condor, Lars Jean, PS I Still Love You, To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Orla Smith / March 5, 2020

P.S. We still love you, Lara Jean: Lana Condor’s perfect rom-com heroine

Lana Condor is the shining light at the centre of disappointing sequel P.S. I Still Love You. Why is she the perfect rom-com heroine in the To All the Boys series?

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