Category Archives: Movies

Review: A Real Pain and Dreamin’ Wild

Posted on January 31, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though Jesse Eisenberg taps every anxiety joke in his second directorial feature and does nothing particularly fresh with them, A Real Pain is quite funny in the way some of Woody Allen’s post-Annie Hall comedies were funny. Characters you’re familiar … Continue reading →

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Review: The Room Next Door

Posted on January 30, 2025 by philipbrasor

As with two of his previous short subjects, The Human Voice and Strange Way of Life, Pedro Almodóvar’s use of the English language in the feature-length The Room Next Door has a stilted, scripted quality that doesn’t necessarily indicate the … Continue reading →

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Review: Filmlovers!

Posted on January 29, 2025 by philipbrasor

At some point in a serious filmmaker’s career they tackle the subject of cinema itself. Usually, it’s in the form of a narrative love letter to the art, such as Truffaut’s Day For Night or Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, but sometimes … Continue reading →

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Review: The Goldfinger

Posted on January 24, 2025 by philipbrasor

Based on a true story, this thriller set in Hong Kong during the 70s and 80s stars Tony Leung and Andy Lau, together for the first time since the popular early-aughts Infernal Affairs trilogy, and was written and directed by … Continue reading →

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Review: The Apprentice

Posted on January 18, 2025 by philipbrasor

The Japanese distributor of Ali Abassi’s origin story of Donald Trump The Monster probably thinks they’ve scored a coup by releasing it the weekend before Trump’s second term as POTUS begins (it opened in the U.S. about a month before … Continue reading →

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Review: Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Posted on January 17, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though I don’t normally look to Hong Kong kung-fu epics for political meaning, I was puzzled by a central plot point in this 1980s-set action movie directed by Soi Cheang, which reportedly is the first of a series. Raymond Lam … Continue reading →

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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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