...we’re invited to reflect not only on the film Lou has made, but also the film he hasn’t made and perhaps can’t.

The vertiginous condensing of fiction and nonfiction, of past and present, has a radically destabilizing effect that’s inseparable from the audacity of Lou’s political vision.

Life gets in the way of art all the time, and art can be made out of life. What matters, the movie suggests, is hanging onto one another for dear life.

What begins as a comedy about the Chinese film industry evolves into an intimate drama and culminates as a testament to the collective trauma of COVID-19. [Full review in Spanish]