Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: Twiggy and This Is Sparklehorse

Posted on April 23, 2026 by philipbrasor

The moral of the story that comes through in Sadie Frost’s fawning documentary about 60s fashion icon Twiggy—born Lesley Hornby to working class parents in Cockney London in 1949—is that good character will always hold sway even during the most … Continue reading →

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Review: The Old Oak and Lost Land

Posted on April 22, 2026 by philipbrasor

The Old Oak, the title of what is reported to be Ken Loach’s last film, refers to a superannuated pub in Durham, a small town in northern England that was once sustained by a local coal mine, which closed some … Continue reading →

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Review: Song Sung Blue and Is This Thing On?

Posted on April 17, 2026 by philipbrasor

As a producer-director, Craig Brewer has made a lot of music-related narrative works, including the florid hip-hop industry dramas Hustle & Flow and Empire, which address the business side of major label music more than the creative side. He’s never … Continue reading →

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Review: Köln 75 and It’s Okay!

Posted on April 10, 2026 by philipbrasor

The cheeky German film, Köln 75, purports to tell the true story behind a famous musical event, the 1975 solo concert by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in the West German city of Cologne (Köln). The recording of that concert went … Continue reading →

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Review: Hamnet

Posted on April 9, 2026 by philipbrasor

It’s obvious from the start that Chloe Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel (both collaborated on the screenplay) is not meant to be taken as a fact-based document about William Shakespeare’s married life. Though I haven’t studied Shakespeare as … Continue reading →

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Review: Dirty Angels

Posted on April 8, 2026 by philipbrasor

The title sounds like a Roger Corman exploitation flick from the late 60s, and while the movie does carry such a vibe and will probably please the kind of people who go for that kind of thing, our post-p.c. entertainment … Continue reading →

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Review: The Legend of Ochi and Pilot

Posted on April 3, 2026 by philipbrasor

Having mostly passed through the 80s in a blur of distraction, I wasn’t fully up on current pop culture at the time the way I was in the 70s and 90s, and so the 80s revival has never really felt … Continue reading →

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Review: The Bride! and Anaconda

Posted on April 2, 2026 by philipbrasor

It seems unfair that The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s very original take on Mary Shelley’s creation, is released within spitting distance of Guillermo del Toro’s more faithful version, especially given that the latter has gotten more love. Though Frankenstein is not … Continue reading →

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Review: Sound of Falling and Hallan

Posted on April 1, 2026 by philipbrasor

Multigenerational stories that focus on an extended lineage are usually called epics, a term that could apply to Mascha Schilinski’s second feature, Sound of Falling, except that the unifying force over the years depicted isn’t strictly a family but a … Continue reading →

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Review: Chain Reactions

Posted on March 28, 2026 by philipbrasor

Documentary filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe has made a tidy living out of studying scary movies, having already put The Exorcist, Psycho, and Alien under the microscope. This 2024 feature takes on what many believe to be the Rosetta Stone of … Continue reading →

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