Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: Respect

Posted on November 4, 2021 by philipbrasor

The most common complaint about the standard Hollywood biopic, especially ones about musicians, is that their subjects’ lives are made to conform to a dramatic arc that isn’t realistic, and thus leave out things that are important for understanding a … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Oct. 30, 2021

Posted on October 30, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about inherited privilege, especially in politics. Today, of course, is the lower house election, and one of the points that Prof. Doi makes in his Asahi Shimbun interview, and which I didn’t really … Continue reading →

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Review: Monos

Posted on October 30, 2021 by philipbrasor

The lack of specificity that runs through Alejandro Landes’ free-form film about a group of teenage commandos living in the South American jungle can be seen as its main stylistic purpose. The viewer never finds out why these kids have … Continue reading →

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Review: The Mauritanian

Posted on October 29, 2021 by philipbrasor

Kevin McDonald’s movie about Mahamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian who was swept up in the capture of suspects for the 911 terrorist attack and sent to the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, seems to assume that the viewer … Continue reading →

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Review: Sweet Thing

Posted on October 28, 2021 by philipbrasor

New York indie standard bearer Alexandre Rockwell is mainly known for giving Steve Buscemi his first leading man role in the 1992 underground hit In the Soup, which also happened to be Rockwell’s debut. Since then he’s maintained a career … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Oct. 23, 2021

Posted on October 24, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about excessive overtime work for Kasumigaseki bureaucrats. As pointed out in the column, many civil servants have to stay late at the office in order to draft responses to questions from opposition lawmakers … Continue reading →

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Review: I Am Greta

Posted on October 21, 2021 by philipbrasor

As the title suggests, Nathan Grossman’s documentary about teen climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg is more about the person than the activist, though, with someone like Greta, the distinction may be moot. Consequently, the viewer often gets the feeling that … Continue reading →

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An interview with Todd Haynes, 2008

Posted on October 19, 2021 by philipbrasor

The following is a transcript of a telephone conversation I had with director Todd Haynes in 2008 about his movie, I’m Not There, a kind of fantasia about Bob Dylan. It was done for the Asahi Shimbun’s English language edition … Continue reading →

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Review: The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith

Posted on October 18, 2021 by philipbrasor

As a kind of adjunct local release to Minamata, the controversial feature film treatment about American photographer W. Eugene Smith’s black-and-white record of the first major industrial pollution case to garner global headlines, Sara Fishko’s 2015 documentary The Jazz Loft … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Oct. 16, 2021

Posted on October 17, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which covers a documentary feature about climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg and Japan’s own response to the crisis. After I wrote the column, Syukuro Manabe won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in … Continue reading →

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