A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Italian and Italian-language Films
Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Salò or the 120 days of Sodom” / “Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma” (1975) Grim and harrowing to watch but an…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Anthony Lucas, “The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello” (2004) A nominee for a Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2006, this is a visually beautiful…
Ignacio Cerdà, Ethan Jacobson, Francisco Stohr, “The Awakening” (1991) This 8-minute short is the first of three films forming a trilogy about death and how we…
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…
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…
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…
Australian and New Zealand Films, British Films
Paul Campion, “Night of the Hell Hamsters” (2005), “Eel Girl” (2008) Film shorts are a flexible medium for telling particular kinds of stories or expressing ideas…
Georgiy Kropachyov and Konstantin Yershov, “Viy” (1967) A rare 1960s Soviet film in the horror genre, “Viy” is more Gothic fairy tale than a straight horror…
Roman Polanski, “Repulsion” (1965) A good psychological character study of a young woman suffering mental illness and falling apart while alone and isolated in her sister’s apartment, “Repulsion”…