A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Larry and Andy Wachowski, “The Matrix” (1999) Strip “The Matrix” of its sci-fi trimmings, its computer FX and choreographed martial arts and gunfight scenes and what…
Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra, “A Chairy Tale” (1957) A delightful little number that even young children will appreciate, this Canadian short is a fable about…
Shuhei Morita, “Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek” (2004) A very lavish short film that uses cel-shaded animation to render the CG imagery three-dimensional, “Kakurenbo” has a definite…
Marcela Gaviria, “WikiSecrets” (2011) Took in this documentary on SBS1 last night on the case of Bradley Manning, the US soldier arrested in May 2010 f0r…
Tatsuo Sato, “Cat Soup” / “Nekojiru-so” (2003) Here is a beautifully animated surreal short film which superficially looks like a children’s film but is clearly intended…
Chris Cunningham, “Rubber Johnny” (2005) Started small as a commercial based on the idea of a raver’s body morphing into different shapes as he dances, then…
Gus van Sant, “Psycho” (1998) A shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock original with much the same dialogue and even reconstructions of the original sets, this film…
Takashi Miike, “13 Assassins” / “Jusannin no Shikaku” (2010) Is there a genre of film the prolific director Takashi Miike hasn’t yet touched? Eighty films in…
Louie Psihoyos, “The Cove” (2009) This documentary by American photographer and film-maker Louie Psihoyos combines spy thriller genre elements with an agenda to educate the public about…
Shinya Tsukamoto, “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” (1989) Once again Tsukamoto has remade “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” in the form of “Tetsuo: Bullet Man”, the previous remake having been…