Monthly Archives: February 2020

Review: Les Miserables

Posted on February 29, 2020 by philipbrasor

As has already been pointed out, the title of Ladj Ly’s debut feature is a kind of piss-take on the classic Victor Hugo opus, a move that both provokes curiosity and confounds expectations. It is about “poor people” in the … Continue reading →

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Review: For Sama

Posted on February 28, 2020 by philipbrasor

Though it’s not vital to appreciating her achievement, Waad al-Kateab was not a trained filmmaker when she started recording her day-to-day existence in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in 2012. At the time she was studying for a business … Continue reading →

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Review: Bombshell

Posted on February 22, 2020 by philipbrasor

Tongue-in-cheek title aside, there’s not a whole lot in Jay Roach’s takedown of Fox News that’s farcical. If anything, the movie is earnest, even sincere in the way it unloads on male toxicity in the media, but Roger Ailes is … Continue reading →

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Review: Midsommar

Posted on February 21, 2020 by philipbrasor

I’ll give hot horror director Ari Aster this much: He really knows how to set the stage for his twisty mischief. Like his earlier potboiler, Hereditary, Midsommar opens with a deceptively bleak slice of melodrama. Dani (Frances Pugh), a grad … Continue reading →

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Review: A Hidden Life

Posted on February 19, 2020 by philipbrasor

What’s immediately striking about Terrence Malick’s newest movie is that its premise does most of the work for him. Malick is known for imprinting a characteristic visual style and spiritual tone on all his stories, regardless of their provenance or … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Feb. 16, 2020

Posted on February 16, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about LDP lawmaker Tomomi Inada’s perceived shift to the center owing to her support for a tax revision that would provide deductions for single mothers who have never been married. As pointed out in the … Continue reading →

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Review: Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy

Posted on February 15, 2020 by philipbrasor

Justin Kelly’s cinematic retelling of the J.T. LeRoy scandal is the second film I’ve watched in a span of 24 hours about a true-life literary hoax. The day before I watched Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which was … Continue reading →

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Review: 1917

Posted on February 14, 2020 by philipbrasor

Most bets were on Sam Mendes’s World War I epic to take the Best Picture Oscar at last week’s Academy Awards ceremony, but no one seems to be griping that he was robbed. I guess that most people who saw … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Feb. 9, 2020

Posted on February 9, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the press’s collateral coverage of the trial of the Sagamihara care home killer. It should be noted that neighborhood resistance to care facilities for people with disabilities is not a rare thing. The Mainichi … Continue reading →

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Review: The Good Liar

Posted on February 8, 2020 by philipbrasor

The first thing that needs to be said about The Good Liar for those who look to reviews for recommendations is that it’s essentially a straightforward adaptation of what sounds like a trashy thriller novel made respectable by the casting … Continue reading →

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