Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: A Useful Ghost and The President’s Cake

Posted on July 10, 2026 by philipbrasor

Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s debut feature, A Useful Ghost, has the opposite effect of being haunting. In tone and pace, it’s closer to the work of Aki Kaurasmaki, with actors striking disaffected poses regardless of what they’re reacting to. Moreover, … Continue reading →

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Review: Bring Her Back and Good Boy

Posted on July 9, 2026 by philipbrasor

The Australian Philippou brothers, Danny and Michael, quickly followup their hit debut, Talk to Me, with Bring Her Back, an even more disturbing horror film that relies less on supernatural spookiness; which isn’t to say its plot doesn’t beggar belief, … Continue reading →

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Review: Nouvelle Vague

Posted on July 8, 2026 by philipbrasor

Richard Linklater is much too practical a director to make a movie that doesn’t attempt to entertain, regardless of the subject matter or mode of expression. As the title of his latest film attests, he means to address the French … Continue reading →

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Review: The Love That Remains and Good Valley Stories

Posted on July 3, 2026 by philipbrasor

The Icelandic filmmaker and visual artist Hlynur Pálmason requires his audience to put in some effort—not a lot, but enough to force you to pay close attention—in order to make sense of the domestic dynamic at work within the family … Continue reading →

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Review: Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes

Posted on July 2, 2026 by philipbrasor

This documentary purports to reveal a more intimate side of the legendary pianist and big band leader through “private correspondence and home movies” that, supposedly, have never been made public before. Most of these documents seem to consist of letters … Continue reading →

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Review: Gloaming in Luomo and Mothertongue

Posted on July 1, 2026 by philipbrasor

Korean-Chinese director Zhang Lu’s Gloaming in Luomu won the inaugural Busan Prize in the Competition section of last year’s Busan International Film Festival. Zhang, a mainstay at the festival for two decades, is a master of characterization and setting, though … Continue reading →

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Review: The Outwaters and The Long Walk

Posted on June 26, 2026 by philipbrasor

Horror movies have been ascendant for decades, but in the last few years, certainly since the end of the pandemic, they’ve become even more commercially viable since they seem to be the only genre outside of children’s animated films that … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Zainichi Koreans often had it harder in Korea than they had it in Japan

Posted on June 24, 2026 by philipbrasor

We’ve often written about the discrimination that Japan-born-and-resident “zainichi” Koreans have to put up with in Japan, but as it turns out, they also face a certain amount of discrimination in Korea, too. A June 14 story in the Asahi … Continue reading →

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Review: The Last Viking and Pretty Crazy

Posted on June 19, 2026 by philipbrasor

A lot of comedies, especially those that favor a blacker hue, posit worlds that are in and of themselves insane. The Danish writer and director, Anders Thomas Jensen, creates characters who are eccentric in weird and sometimes dangerous ways. In … Continue reading →

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Review: I Was a Stranger and Rich Flu

Posted on June 18, 2026 by philipbrasor

It would be hard to name a recent movie that is more timely than Brandt Andersen’s feature debut, I Was a Stranger, which explores, in a granular manner, the circumstances that prompted many people living in wartorn areas of the … Continue reading →

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