Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: The Price of Everything

Posted on August 15, 2019 by philipbrasor

There are few capitalist recreactions as confounding and uninteresting to the hoi polloi as investing in art. Though everyone understands the concept and can perhaps appreciate the economic dynamic at work, most people find the effort involved, not to mention … Continue reading →

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Review: Carmine Street Guitars

Posted on August 10, 2019 by philipbrasor

As fly-on-the-wall documentaries go, Ron Mann’s small-scaled portrait of a venerable Greenwich Village guitar shop should make even Frederick Wiseman green with envy. Due to its location and hard won reputation, Carmine Street Guitars can expect quite a few celebrity … Continue reading →

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Review: Peterloo

Posted on August 8, 2019 by philipbrasor

As he approaches the twilight of his career, Mike Leigh, perhaps the best and certainly the most idiosyncratic of British filmmakers, has increasingly turned to history to explore his feelings about what it means to be English. His two most … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Aug. 4, 2019

Posted on August 4, 2019 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the toxic connection between TV and talent agencies, mainly Yoshimoto Kogyo. As mentioned in the column, almost all of Japan’s major commercial TV networks hold shares in Yoshimoto, which strengthens their mutual dependence, but … Continue reading →

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Review: Welcome to Marwen

Posted on July 20, 2019 by philipbrasor

It’s easy to see why Robert Zemeckis was attracted to the true-life story of Mark Hogancamp. Zemeckis’s brief since the Back to the Future series has been fantasy that comments on who we are right now, “we” being invariably Americans. … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, July 14, 2019

Posted on July 14, 2019 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the scant coverage of Kurdish refugees in Japan. An obvious question that often arises when people discuss refugees in Japan is why they even come here in the first place, since Japan is clearly … Continue reading →

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Review: The Old Man & the Gun

Posted on July 12, 2019 by philipbrasor

David Lowery’s career so far has produced one of the weirdest bodies of work of any young director: the 70s pastiche Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, the surprisingly affecting family-friendly fantasy Pete’s Dragon, and the ambitious occult-psychological study A Ghost Story. His … Continue reading →

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Review: The Guardians

Posted on July 7, 2019 by philipbrasor

Xavier Beauvois takes an unusual approach to a war movie. Though he opens on a battlefield strewn with corpses during World War I, his film very rarely addresses the brute terror of warfare. Like Satyajit Ray’s memorable Distant Thunder, it … Continue reading →

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Review: The Sisters Brothers

Posted on July 6, 2019 by philipbrasor

The hitman movie hit a wall years ago, maybe as far back as Pulp Fiction, which billed itself as the last word on the sub-genre. Since then, it’s been variations on a theme, and the variations haven’t been varied enough … Continue reading →

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Review: Wildlife

Posted on July 5, 2019 by philipbrasor

Actor Paul Dano took on a lot when he decided to adapt Richard Ford’s 1990 novel as his directorial debut. Dano does not appear in the movie, and neither does his significant other and co-scenarist Zoe Kazan, but there’s something … Continue reading →

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