Monthly Archives: May 2018

Review: The Death of Louis XIV

Recently, Christopher Nolan hailed Stanley Kubrick as the greatest director of all time, mainly for his ability to make nitrate film stock mimic the most sublime visual attributes of great paintings. Though he was thinking of 2001, Barry Lyndon is … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Review: Isle of Dogs

As a long-time resident of Japan whose interaction with the local culture is circumstantial, I don’t believe I have much to add to the conversation that has surrounded Wes Anderson’s latest entertainment and which mostly has to do with whether … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Review: Phantom Thread

In the rarefied setting that informs Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest luxury, the title “fashion designer” seems imprecise when describing the vocation of the protagonist, Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis). He’s a dressmaker. All he makes is fine dresses for fine ladies. … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Media Mix, May 27, 2018

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, about the Government Monitor System, which was shut down several weeks ago after major media finally discovered it and realized that it contained a lot of comments that qualified as hate speech. The moral of … Continue reading

Posted in Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Review: All the Money in the World

It’s a wonder that the incredible tale of the 1973 kidnapping of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty’s grandson hasn’t been dramatized before (for the record, there is presently a TV series covering the same ground), but as it stands this … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Oh, Lucy!

Atsuko Hirayanagi explores familiar screwball archetypes in her debut feature, and while most have been well presented by other Japanese directors, they’ve never attempted them in a cross-cultural setting. Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) is an uptight, lonely single woman working a … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment