Meet the Writers: Zachary Lee | Features

Editor’s note: To give you a chance to get to know our writers better, we’ve asked them to respond to some questions. Here’s Zachary Lee. Read his work here.

1. Where did you grow up, and what was it like?

I was born in Whittier, California before moving to the suburb of Wheaton when I was five. That move was my first exposure to the Midwest and I remember finding the flatness of the landscape initially off-putting before realizing that if I never walked up a hill again, I would be quite content. From Wheaton, my family then moved to North Center and then to the North Park neighborhood. I enjoyed being so close to the University where my dad taught (I’d frequent the library and student common areas), the Brown line station, walking trails (the River Park trail remains a favorite), and at one point, three taquerías. I felt like I had everything I needed.

2. Was anyone else in your family into movies? If so, what effect did they have on your moviegoing tastes?

As a family, we’d orbit the genres of action and animation almost exclusively (we’d make an exception for the Korean films playing at the AMC Niles or the K-dramas we could rent from the video store). I would bond a lot with my dad over marital arts movies; he’d introduce me to the movies of Sammo Hung, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan and then as I grew older, we’d also add in Donnie Yen, Iko Uwais, and Tony Jaa. Although there’s a lot of film canon I still haven’t seen, there are a couple of films that I know inside and out, namely “The Lord of the Rings,” anything “Star Wars” related, “Peter Pan,” “Treasure Planet, “Bionicle: Mask of Light,” and 2006’s “The Pink Panther” were on constant rotation. We wouldn’t go to the theater unless there was a film that warranted the cost which usually meant blockbuster films. These rhythms instilled the sense that movie-going was a communal experience but also sort of sacred in that we wouldn’t go often but when we did, it was significant. Rewatching the same films over and over also instilled in me that they were rich texts to be revisited time and time again; it was foolish to think one “got” or “understood” a film after first viewing. I always looked forward to my family’s yearly rewatches of “The Lord of the Rings” (my parents in particular held a deep affection for this series) for this reason because I loved thinking about what new things I would notice. Even if I’m behind on catching up on new releases for a given year, I’ll often make time to rewatch something I’ve seen already just to keep that practice of discovery within the familiar alive.

3. What’s the first movie you remember seeing, and what impression did it make on you?

I primarily define my movie watching into two eras: before “Chicken Run” and after “Finding Nemo.” I don’t recall much of the plot of “Chicken Run,”(I was 3?) only remembering that the googly eyes and combination of teeth inside a beak made me swear off going to the movies for a long time. My parents somehow convinced me to go back to the cinema upon the release of “Finding Nemo” and I was instantly transfixed. 2003 was the peak of my obsession with underwater creatures (mako sharks, colossal squids, anglerfish … I loved them all), and watching “Finding Nemo” felt like seeing all the picture books I had consumed come to life. What was once just flat images on a page became fully fleshed out.

4. What’s the first movie that made you think, “Hey, some people made this. It didn’t just exist. There’s a human personality behind it.”

Watching movies that were assigned for the class was often the first foray into this because I realized that movies weren’t just for entertainment but could also be tools of instruction. “Ran” and “El Mariachi” were films assigned in college that I had the privilege to dissect and view over the course of multiple days. They made me think about the craft, production, and what it meant to be an auteur and have a vision. Conversely, I think really bad movies have reminded me that people had a hand in making it because only human agency and effort could produce something so awful … looking at you “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

5. What’s the first movie you ever walked out of?

I usually don’t walk out of movies even if I find them utterly painful to sit through (was very close with “Master Gardener.”). The only time I have done so is when I attended TIFF for the first time in 2023. It was one of my first film festivals so and I hadn’t paced myself so I must have seen four movies the first day and thought I could power through a fifth and as I sat down for my final film, “Reptile,” I realized I would not be able to make it through this slow burn, 136-minute thriller and shamefully left.

6. What’s the funniest film you’ve ever seen?

You’ll see in my following responses that it’s hard for me to pick just one. I will forever remain an evangelist for “Game Night,” a movie I discovered in the first days of lockdown in 2020. Love the playfulness of its visual language and I quote its lines (“Revert? Who are you, Steve Jobs?”) frequently. “Calvary,” “Megamind,” “Zola,” and The Forty-Year-Old Version” are also up there.

7. What’s the saddest film you’ve ever seen?

When I studied abroad at Oxford, I took a tutorial that looked at the films of Lars Von Trier. I saw “Dogville” and “Melancholia” back-to-back … separately I saw “In A Lonely Place” for “fun” … that was a very heavy cinema year for me. I still get emotional during “Train to Busan” and “First Reformed.” 

8. What’s the scariest film you’ve ever seen?

Claymation still scares me to this day. My mom also took my younger brother and me to see “The Divine Fury” thinking it would be a fun action movie about an MMA fighter turned priest who fights demons … it was fun but also a full-blown horror movie none of us were prepared for. I’ve found “Nightcrawler” and “Ingrid Goes West” to be frightening and only more relevant when it comes to talking about the dangers of our relationship with screens and media.

9. What’s the most romantic film you’ve ever seen?

“Paris, Texas” and “Eyes Wide Shut” are recent ones I’ve seen. I haven’t seen a lot of straightforward romance films but there are a lot of romances I find really touching within movies of other genres. “Minari” and “The Pirates of the Caribbean” are examples of that.

10. What’s the first television show you ever saw that made you think television could be more than entertainment?

Shows like “Justice League Unlimited,” and later “Transformers Animated,” “The Spectacular Spider-Man” and “Young Justice” were ones that moved beyond the “villain of the week” format to tell multi-season stories that were complex and expansive. These shows also reminded me about the power of the medium of television to self-contained stories in twenty or thirty minutes but also have those be a part of a larger, cohesive whole.

11. What book do you think about or revisit the most?

Without even intentionally meaning to, Frankenstein is a book I find myself repeatedly rereading in a given year. I read it once in the Summer before college for fun and then a class I took assigned it that same year; since then I’ve been trying to re-read it at least once a year. I see why it’s a text that lends itself to constant adaptation and reinterpretation. The Psalms, Piranesi, and Sour Heart are books I return to often too.

12. What album or recording artist have you listened to the most, and why?

There are several records by hip-hop artist Andy Mineo that I will always have on repeat, like Magic and Bird and The Arrow. Love how experimental he was with his sound and lyricism and how he’d find ways to talk about his faith in nuanced ways. Maggie Rogers’s music was my top artist on last year’s Spotify Wrapped and I imagine it will be the same this year.

13. Is there a movie that you think is great, powerful, or perfect, but that you never especially want to see again, and why?

Most Dogme 95 films, but most particularly, Kristian Levring’s “The King is Alive.” It’s a disturbing and primal take on the “group of people who are stranded together and descend into madness” trope.  Of all the movies that have talked about how art can be a helpful way to process and move past trauma and pain, this one seemed to revel in how art can enable our worst impulses. Beautiful but bleak.

14. What movie have you seen more times than any other?

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” holds the prize for most times I’ve seen a film I’ve seen in a single year (8). I think otherwise, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and more specifically, “The Fellowship of the Ring” (as tends to happen with rewatches, my family would often start the first one, and then our energy would decline as we’d try to make it through the other two).

15. What was your first R-rated movie, and did you like it?

2013’s “Elysium” which I’ll always hold a soft spot for. I was not yet of the proper “age” to see it which is why seeing it felt extra special. I was allowed due to circumstance; my grandparents, who I was spending time with in the Summer, really liked action movies but at the theater, there was nothing else playing that fit that description except “Elysium.” My dad begrudgingly acquiesced that I could see it.

16. What’s the most visually beautiful film you’ve ever seen?

“Phantom Thread”, and sci-fi films like “Interstellar” and “After Yang.” It might be recency bias since I’ve watched it not too long ago, but I really enjoy everything going on with 2012’s “Dredd” too.

17. Who are your favorite leading men, past and present?

Anytime I see Adam Driver, André Holland, Andrew Garfield, Bryan Tyree Henry, Christopher Abbott, Ethan Hawke, Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, or Steven Yeun on the marquee for a project I will watch it.

18. Who are your favorite leading ladies, past and present?

Anytime I see Aubrey Plaza, Carrie Coon, Cate Blanchett, Rebecca Hall, Kerry Condon, Jennifer Lawrence, Jun Jong-seo, Maika Monroe, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Saoirse Ronan, and Sofia Boutella, on the marquee for a project I will watch it.

19. Who’s your favorite modern filmmaker?

Haven’t seen enough of one director’s work to say I have a favorite but any time I hear of a Kogonada, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Schrader, or Sofia Coppola film, I’m immediately curious.

20. Who’s your least favorite modern filmmaker?

I’m always willing to give a filmmaker a chance again but so far have been disappointed by most of JJ Abrams’s filmography.

21. What film do you love that most people seem to hate?

“Dracula Untold,” “Jupiter Ascending,” and “On the Rocks” are releases I find myself ardently defending.

22. What film do you hate that most people love?

It has been alleged that I do not have a soul due to how little I felt moved by “Aftersun.” Not a movie I hate by any means but I’m definitely more mixed on it than most.

23. Tell me about a moviegoing experience you will never forget—not just because of the movie, but because of the circumstances in which you saw it.

Watching “Get Out” at an advanced early screening at the Cornell Cinema will forever be a top-tier viewing experience. No one knew what to expect, I hadn’t seen “Girls” and had only seen 2011’s “Johnny English Reborn” so Daniel Kaluuya and Alison Williams were unknown quantities to me. By the time we see Lil Rel Howery step out of the police car, it feels like I was at a concert, not a movie screening. An amazing way to see a film. Another one that’s less flashy but one I reflect on fondly is when my friends Curtis and G double featured “Bullet Train” and “The Pope’s Exorcist,” two films buoyed by their silliness and goofiness.

24. What aspect of modern theatrical moviegoing do you like least?

I see the value and importance of the awards cycle, but sometimes it feels like people get too caught up in it. Unless something has been critically acclaimed, won a bunch of awards, or is otherwise a known quantity, people won’t see it. I understand that time is precious and that awards becomes a way to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak, but some of my favorite movies have been those that fall outside of what’s nominated. I miss the sense of play and curiosity that would characterize movie watching. I also dislike the attitude that’s been cultivated about not watching things in theaters and just waiting for streaming.

25. What aspect of moviegoing during your childhood do you miss the most?

I think having shared cinematic references. I was fortunate to be close friends with the kids in my neighborhood and we’d watch the same movies (often multiple times) and build inside jokes out of certain lines or characters. It’s different now since there’s so much to watch and I feel like there’s less of an opportunity to have that shared language or collection of inside jokes.

26. Have you ever damaged a friendship, or thought twice about a relationship, because you disagreed about whether a movie was good or bad?

I learned very early on in my writing career about the importance of criticism and how your words can directly have an impact on people. For my first ever published movie review, I wrote about Antoine Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven.” I stand by the adulation I gave it then but when I sent the article to my family’s group chat, I didn’t know that they were so taken aback by how much I had praised it they all went to go see it but found the return on investment diminishing. Since then, they always bring up “The Magnificent Seven” incident anytime I try to gas up a movie too much.

27. What movies have you dreamed about?

Back to the aforementioned claymation, I was haunted by “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” when I first saw it. Something about the body horror of Wallace’s metamorphosis, Gromit’s lack of a mouth, the British accents … I distinctly remember the night after seeing the film I went to my dad and asked him to pray that I wouldn’t have any more nightmares. I think it mostly worked although sometimes just as I drift to sleep I see the haunted outline of the titular were-rabbit. Otherwise, the camera work in Vera Egito’s underseen “The Battle” (“A Batalha da Rua Maria Antônia”) has stuck with me ever since 2023’s CIFF, “Jurassic Park,” “Crimes of the Future,” and most recently, “The Idea of You,” I’ve all dreamed about.

28. What concession stand item can you not live without?

I could eat a bottomless amount of popcorn but I’m also a big proponent of sneaking food into the theater. My favorite moment of transgression was bringing in spam musubi while watching one of the “Transformers” films.