Blowup: blown up out of proportion to actual charms
Michelangelo Antonioni, “Blowup”, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (1966) I’d been warned by a friend that this movie was over-rated, and possibly “Blowup” is famous among a lot…
French and French-language Films
Alphaville: Lemme caution you, it’s a sci-fi flick like no other
Jean-Luc Godard, “Alphaville”, Athos Films (1965) On the surface “Alphaville” is just one of many episodes in the career of stereotypical hard-boiled trenchcoat-suited detective Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine). Caution’s immediate mission is…
Inception: overhyped film remains in dream limbo
Christopher Nolan, “Inception” (2010) I found this film disappointing despite the ingenious combination of science fiction with the conventions of an action heist film, based on the…
The Runaways: Cherie Bomb turns out to be a fizzler
This homage to the 1970s all-female hard rock band The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi, The Runaways, Apparition / Sony Pictures Entertainment 2010) had a lot of advance…
Looking for ramen and vending machines but getting oden-kan and pachinko machines instead
Patrick W Galbraith, The Otaku Encyclopedia: An insider’s guide to the subculture of Cool Japan, Kodansha International Ltd, Tokyo, 2009 (ISBN 978-4-7700-3101-3) As a sometimes avid…
Control: apt title for Joy Division / Ian Curtis biopic where control is not much in evidence
It’s apt that this biopic about Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis should be called Control because, apart from the reference to the famous Joy Division…
Nowhere Boy
You don’t need to know much about The Beatles or John Lennon in particular to watch Sam Taylor-Wood’s Nowhere Boy (Ecosse Films / Icon), a fictionalised…
Don’t say you weren’t warned: It might get loud
Here’s the recipe: take three rock guitarists, each representative of his generation of rock musicians, put them together in a huge warehouse space with their instruments…