Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: Magazine Dreams

Posted on December 19, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though a bona fide indie, this sophomore feature by Elijah Bynum comes across as a fairly big production owing to its star, Jonathan Majors, who at the time it was made was riding high as box office contender, having scored … Continue reading →

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Review: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Posted on December 18, 2025 by philipbrasor

I would normally advise filmmakers to steer away from ironic movie titles unless their movies were explicitly comedies, but I’m really not sure if the title of Korean-American director Kogonada’s romantic fantasy is supposed to be ironic. Certainly there are … Continue reading →

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The Passion of Shiori Ito

Posted on December 16, 2025 by philipbrasor

I first saw Shiori Ito’s documentary, Black Box Diaries, about her struggle to bring the man who raped her to some kind of justice, in Oct. 2024 at the Busan International Film Festival. At the opening night reception, the American … Continue reading →

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Review: By the Stream

Posted on December 13, 2025 by philipbrasor

It’s such a delight to see Kim Min-hee again in a leading role. Though everyone knows that Kim is filmmaker Hong Sangsoo’s partner in both life and commerce, she’s also one of Korea’s best actors, and since becoming Hong’s most … Continue reading →

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Review: Eddington

Posted on December 12, 2025 by philipbrasor

A lot of critics have labeled Ari Aster’s latest provocation a modern Western owing to certain superficial signifiers—cowboy hats, a desert-adjacent setting—but to me it’s closer in spirit to Breaking Bad, and not just because the titular town is in … Continue reading →

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Review: Shelby Oaks

Posted on December 11, 2025 by philipbrasor

As the old truism goes, write what you know, advice that YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann follows for the opening 20 minutes or so of his debut horror feature. Making fairly good use of the found footage device that made … Continue reading →

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Review: The Shadow’s Edge

Posted on December 10, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though I wouldn’t take it as an accurate representation of the Chinese authorities’ feelings about the A.I. revolution, this expensive-looking Hong Kong actioner by Larry Yang, set in Macau and presented in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, does raise questions about … Continue reading →

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Review: Heavy Snow

Posted on December 6, 2025 by philipbrasor

Korean narrative entertainment, both movies and TV dramas, often exploits real world subtexts. Popular actors not only take roles that mirror some aspect of their private lives, but allude to those lives in their dialogue. The two lead actors in … Continue reading →

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Review: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

Posted on December 5, 2025 by philipbrasor

The word “documentary” only applies to Sepideh Farsi’s film in a generic way. Though it certainly is a document of the exiled Iranian director’s nine-month WhatsApp video relationship with the young Palestinian photographer Fatma Hassona, its focus on that relationship … Continue reading →

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Review: Knox Goes Away and The Penguin Lessons

Posted on December 4, 2025 by philipbrasor

Anyone who has read this blog with any consistency will know my opinion of hit man (or woman) movies: There’s way too many considering the profession itself is essentially a fantasy. And because of the sheer volume of films represented … Continue reading →

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