Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: Fallen Leaves

Posted on December 15, 2023 by philipbrasor

Tonally and thematically, there isn’t much difference between Aki Kaurismäki’s newest film and his previous ones. The production design is still impeccably nondescript, the dialogue strictly utilitarian, the attention to quotidian detail limited to a lower class socioeconomic field. If … Continue reading →

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Review: The Taste of Things

Posted on December 14, 2023 by philipbrasor

This Belle Epoque-set adaptation of Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel about a well-to-do French epicure may be the most indulgently gorgeous entry into that sub-genre called food porn cinema. In the hands of director Tran Anh Hung, who used his sumptuous … Continue reading →

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Review: The Worst Ones

Posted on December 9, 2023 by philipbrasor

Right from the start, Lise Akoka’s and Romane Gueret’s fiction feature about an indie film crew making a fiction feature about disadvantaged kids in a suburban French town seems to be skewering the methodology of the Dardenne brothers. The director … Continue reading →

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Review: Vortex

Posted on December 8, 2023 by philipbrasor

It’s logical that Gaspar Noé’s latest film be compared to Michael Haneke’s Amour. Both are about impending death. Both focus on elderly couples. Both are unflinching in their depiction of how the body deteriorates in real time. The main difference … Continue reading →

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Review: Winter Boy

Posted on December 7, 2023 by philipbrasor

Christophe Honoré’s film about a troubled 17-year-old boy is as conflicted and frustrating as its protagonist, qualities that make it difficult to get a purchase on its intentions and the direction of the story in the beginning, which turns out … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Kishida’s premiership sustained by inferiority complex

Posted on December 5, 2023 by philipbrasor

It’s commonly thought that Japan is run by its bureaucracy and that politicians don’t have much to do with shaping and moving policy. Though it’s an over-simplification this belief still has merit. All you have to do is look at … Continue reading →

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Review: A Boy’s Life

Posted on December 3, 2023 by philipbrasor

The Japanese title of this Austrian documentary translates as “Mengele and I,” which is misleading but in a different way than the English title is misleading. The film is basically a monologue by Holocaust survivor Daniel Chanoch who, as a … Continue reading →

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Review: Retribution

Posted on December 2, 2023 by philipbrasor

You can set your watch to the release of any new Liam Neeson action vehicle, and in this particular case “vehicle” is the operative word, since all said action takes place in a car that’s wired to explode if anyone … Continue reading →

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Review: Napoleon

Posted on December 1, 2023 by philipbrasor

People tend to complain when movies that endeavor to explain an important historical event fudge the facts, though anyone who has seriously studied history understands that there are always multiple versions of specific narratives, and the really important thing is … Continue reading →

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Review: This Is What I Remember

Posted on November 30, 2023 by philipbrasor

Kyrgyzstan director Aktan Arym Kubat says his latest film is a sequel to his debut fiction feature, The Adopted Son, which came out in 1998. Given that all his subsequent work has been autobiographical in nature, the “sequel” label may … Continue reading →

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