A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Latin American Films (Spanish language)
Pablo Larraín, “No” (2012) Set in late Pinochet-era Chile when the old dictator general, under international pressure to allow democracy to return to the South American…
Akira Kurosawa, “The Hidden Fortress” (1958) Inspiration for George Lucas’ “Star Wars: A New Hope”, the 1978 space-fantasy flick that spawned an industry, this unusual historical…
Bob Rafelson, “Five Easy Pieces” (1970) One of the saddest films I have seen, “Five Easy Pieces” was conceived as a character study vehicle by the…
French and French-language Films
Claude Miller, “Thérèse Desqueyroux” (2012) Claude Miller’s swansong film is a historical drama piece starring Audrey Tautou in the eponymous role occupied by Emmanuelle Riva in…
Paul Grignon, “Money As Debt 3 (Evolution Beyond Money)” In the final episode of the series, Grignon looks at how the world can rid itself of…
Paul Grignon, “Money As Debt 2 (Promises Unleashed)” (2009) Where the first episode in Paul Grignon’s “Money As Debt” series is a general overview of the…
Paul Grignon, “What the Heck is a Bail-Out?” Part of a body of work investigating the role of money in modern society and how banks came…
Paul Grignon, “Money as Debt” (2006) While looking for something else on Youtube.com, I found this very informative video on how the modern US banking system…
Trey Parker, “Team America: World Police” (2004) A silly and puerile satire on American society, culture, the nature of power and the celebration of style over…
Takashi Miike, “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai” (2011) As this is a Takashi Miike film, this flick has the requisite blood-letting shock factor to satisfy Miike’s…