Monthly Archives: February 2024

Review: Little Richard: I Am Everything

Posted on February 29, 2024 by philipbrasor

There’s no way that a documentary about Little Richard, the king, queen, and “architect” (his self-description) of rock and roll, was ever going to be dull, but Lisa Cortes’s study, completed three years after the singer’s death at age 87, … Continue reading →

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Review: Feast

Posted on February 28, 2024 by philipbrasor

Brillante Mendoza’s Feast, which was produced by a Hong Kong company, is one of his more conventional movies, and as such continuously perplexed me. Though it plays up the Philippine director’s normal strengths, it moves in a direction that I … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Citizens group billed for destruction of memorial it didn’t want removed

Posted on February 25, 2024 by philipbrasor

Earlier this month, Gunma Prefecture removed a memorial monument in a park in the city of Takasaki. The monument had been erected in 2004 by a local citizens group to commemorate Korean laborers who had been brought to Japan during … Continue reading →

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Review: Next Goal Wins

Posted on February 24, 2024 by philipbrasor

Of all the genres that beat the “inspired by true events” dead horse, sports movies are probably the most egregious in terms of making shit up. Taika Waititi, whose last film, Jojo Rabbit, even managed to perplex a lot of … Continue reading →

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Review: Madame Web and The Roundup: No Way Out

Posted on February 23, 2024 by philipbrasor

Having had no emotional investment in Marvel Comics since I was 10 I have little to say about the Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s critically meaningful, since the whole point of the MCU is stoking established fans’ passions for the various … Continue reading →

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Review: Anatomy of a Fall

Posted on February 22, 2024 by philipbrasor

Justine Triet’s acclaimed courtroom drama is not a whodunnit in the classic sense, but its basic appeal is the same. The mystery is whether the dead person, a French academic, was murdered by his wife, a German writer who, while … Continue reading →

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Review: The Covenant

Posted on February 20, 2024 by philipbrasor

Though he doesn’t occupy a place in my personal pantheon of revered directors, I acknowledge that Guy Ritchie has created what could be described as an oeuvre: British-identified, comic-inflected, laddish crime capers that are heavy on the violence and homoerotic … Continue reading →

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Review: Soulmate

Posted on February 20, 2024 by philipbrasor

This mainstream Korean melodrama, based on a popular 2016 Chinese film, was reportedly completed before the pandemic and didn’t receive a proper release in Korea until last year. It chronicles the decades-long relationship between two women starting in adolescence, when … Continue reading →

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Review: Beau Is Afraid

Posted on February 16, 2024 by philipbrasor

Though one could categorize Ari Aster’s third feature as a horror film, it’s decidedly different in tone and effect than his first two, Hereditary and Midsommar. Those were more conventional horror films in that the viewer was meant to identify … Continue reading →

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Review: The Night Owl

Posted on February 10, 2024 by philipbrasor

The thing about Korean historical dramas is that they tend to go over the same dozen stories. Ahn Tae-jin’s hit, The Night Owl, is based on the one about the 17th century Joseon crown prince, Sohyeon (Kim Sung-cheol), who was … Continue reading →

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