A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
French and French-language Films
Valerie Bousquie, Josephine Meis, Antoine Vignon, Benjamin Warnitz, “Protocole Sandwich” (2019) This very likeable and comic-strip-styled animation comes across as a satirical commentary on conformism, mass…
French and French-language Films
Soham Chakraborty, Hanxu Chen, M Joffily, Justin Polley, Julie Trouve, “In Orbit” (2019) Similar to Gobelins’ 2018 release “Quand j’ai remplacé Camille” in its theme of…
Victor Alonso-Berbel, “Perfectly Natural” (2018) No aliens, monsters, paranormal events or denizens of Hell or the 25th dimension abound here but this 12-minute short is as…
French and French-language Films
Nicholas Olivieri, Shen Yi, Juliana De Lucca, Varun Nair, David Feliu, “Best Friend” (2019) In the not-so-distant future, a lonely unnamed man find solace in a…
Dave Fleischer, “All’s Fair at the Fair” (1938) Best known for their Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, US animators Max and Dave Fleischer occasionally made animated…
Pella Kagerman, Hugo Lilja, “Aniara” (2018) An ambitious project to bring a poem by the Swedish poet / author / former sailor Harry Martinson (who co-won…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Tsai Ming-liang, “The Hole / Dong” (1998) Its theme of yearning for connection and hope in a dystopian urban environment of the near future, where an…
Japanese Films, North American Films
Shinji Aramaki, “Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars” (2017) Multiplying not quite as fast as the enemy Arachnids did in the original Paul Verhoeven “Starship Troopers” film…
Rick Morales, “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” (2016) The series of Batman films by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher in the 1990s and by Christopher…
Val Guest, “The Quatermass Xperiment” (1955) Filmed well over 60 years ago (at this time of writing), this film of alien-human possession remains a timeless inspiration…