A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Zhang Yimou, “Raise the Red Lantern” (1991) This is a beautiful film of minimal, even severe and classic simplicity, that lets the cruelty and jealous passions…
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, “Spring” (2014) A rather long and thin character study romance that’s equal parts comedy, drama and gore-blimey slimy body horror makes up…
George A Romero, “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) Made on a minuscule budget, George A Romero’s famous horror film is proof that a large pot…
Peter Greenaway, “The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover” (1989) Straight away viewers can tell there’s much more simmering away in this story about a…
Nagisa Oshima, “Ai no korida / In the Realm of the Senses” (1976) Forty years ago this film was made and it still has the power…
Noboru Iguchi, “Dead Sushi” (2012) In the tradition of wacky Japanese comedy horror flicks comes this little number that takes a bizarre concept (bloodthirsty monster sushi)…
Kenji Mizoguchi, “Ugetsu” (1953) Two interwined morality plays about peasants blinded by thoughts of personal fame and glory are the basis for an exploration of love,…
Stanley Kubrick, “The Shining” (1980) In most directors’ hands, a Stephen King horror novel of a family disintegrating under the impact of the husband / father’s…
Kaneto Shindo, “Onibaba” (1964) An old Japanese Buddhist tale of a woman who uses a mask to frighten her daughter from visiting a temple becomes in…
French and French-language Films
Frédéric Doazan, “Supervenus” (2013) This 3-minute debut effort for writer / director Frédéric Doazan is a devastatingly critical comment on modern standards of female beauty as they have…