Category Archives: Movies

Review: A Normal Family

Posted on January 16, 2025 by philipbrasor

Probably no national cinema addresses the conflicts of social class with the directness of South Korea’s. There’s something almost perverse about Korean filmmakers’ willingness to expose the soul-destroying rot of the capitalist system on its citizens. Parasite is the most … Continue reading →

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Review: Teki Cometh

Posted on January 15, 2025 by philipbrasor

With its monochromatic palette and focus on quotidian activity, Daihachi Yoshida’s Teki Cometh, which won the Grand Prix at the most recent Tokyo International Film Festival, initially offers a disarmingly unassuming approach to the notion of passing into insignificance upon … Continue reading →

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Review: Emmanuelle

Posted on January 10, 2025 by philipbrasor

Because Audrey Diwan directed Happening, a movie that honestly addressed abortion, it’s likely her remake of the 1974 softcore classic, which launched countless sequels and copies, will be described as a feminist take on the subject; but even if it … Continue reading →

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Review: Formed Police Unit

Posted on January 9, 2025 by philipbrasor

Sometimes the background of a movie is more interesting than the movie itself. This action blockbuster about a Chinese UN peacekeeping force sent to a wartorn African country had its shooting schedule extended about half a year after its star, … Continue reading →

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Review: Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

Posted on January 3, 2025 by philipbrasor

The character of Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) is familiar in a literary way. A single woman in her late 40s whose life has been in service to the males in her family, specifically an older brother and a widowed father who … Continue reading →

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Review: The Beekeeper

Posted on January 2, 2025 by philipbrasor

Director David Ayer should have checked out some Korean revenge flicks before taking on this Jason Statham vehicle. The Koreans have produced hundreds if not thousands and in the process had to think up new and more interesting reasons for … Continue reading →

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Best Movies 2024

Posted on December 29, 2024 by philipbrasor

The three people who follow my movie reviewing exploits will notice an odd difference in this year’s best-of list: two-count-’em-two Japanese films. As I’ve written before, though I live in Japan I don’t see as many Japanese films as I … Continue reading →

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Review: Vision of Makhmalbaf

Posted on December 28, 2024 by philipbrasor

Mohsen Makhmalbaf left his native Iran in 2005 and has since established the Makhmalbaf Film House in London, where he produces his own movies and those of his wife, Marziyeh Meshkini, his daughters, Samira and Hana, and his son, Maysam. … Continue reading →

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Review: Occupied City

Posted on December 27, 2024 by philipbrasor

Award-winning filmmaker and visual artist Steve McQueen interweaves a variety of cinematic approaches into his documentary tapestry of Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of 1940-45. Based on the book Atlas of an Occupied City by Bianca Stigter, who is married … Continue reading →

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Review: Between the Temples

Posted on December 20, 2024 by philipbrasor

As a comedy, Nathan Silver’s chamber piece about two grieving people finding each other when they weren’t particularly looking for anyone gets off on misplaced expectations. In the opening scene, sullen Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman), a cantor who is taking … Continue reading →

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