Category Archives: Movies

Review: Evil Does Not Exist

Posted on April 26, 2024 by philipbrasor

Almost deceptively, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest film initially comes across as a conventional story about a big, bad corporation invading a rustic village for profit. The simplicity of the premise is what works for me, since I love stories that explain … Continue reading →

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Review: 20 Days in Mariupol

Posted on April 25, 2024 by philipbrasor

While many people have opinions about director Jonathan Glazer’s allusion to the current state of affairs in Israel/Gaza at the recent Oscars ceremony, fewer have remarked on Mstyslav Chernov’s equally powerful remarks when he accepted the Best Feature Documenary award … Continue reading →

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Review: Kidnapped

Posted on April 24, 2024 by philipbrasor

Given his prodigious output over a career that started in 1965, it should be surprising that director Marco Bellocchio doesn’t have more of an international following, but it may have something to do with the parochial nature of his work, … Continue reading →

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Review: Youth (Spring)

Posted on April 20, 2024 by philipbrasor

Wang Bing’s latest documentary may not, at 215 minutes, be one of his typically longer works, but it is probably his most vivid. He spent 6 years recording the lives of young textile workers in the city of Zhili and … Continue reading →

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Review: All of Us Strangers

Posted on April 19, 2024 by philipbrasor

I’ve only seen two of Andrew Haigh’s previous movies, but Lean on Pete and, especially, 45 Years gave me the impression he is a director who has little use for conventional sentimentality, no matter how much the material warrants it. … Continue reading →

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Review: Manticore

Posted on April 18, 2024 by philipbrasor

At its most sensitive, Spanish director Carlos Vermut’s fourth film is about a burgeoning love affair between two lonely but very different people. Julian (Nacho Sanchez) is a modeler for a video game company who specializes in weird, terrible creatures. … Continue reading →

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Review: No. 10

Posted on April 12, 2024 by philipbrasor

The title of Alex van Warmerdam’s latest feature is meaningless in terms of describing the film. It is called No. 10 because it is van Warmerdam’s tenth film, nothing more and nothing less; and, in fact, given the slippery nature … Continue reading →

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Review: Priscilla

Posted on April 11, 2024 by philipbrasor

In terms of verisimilitude, Sophia Coppola’s dramatization of the relationship between Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley (nee Beaulieu) is much more convincing than Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, which was an obvious fantasia. Based on Priscilla’s own 1985 memoir, the new … Continue reading →

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Review: Infinity Pool

Posted on April 6, 2024 by philipbrasor

As a chip off the old block, Brandon Cronenberg lacks his father’s ability to connect a viewer emotionally to the outrageous images he conjures up, unless you consider disgust an emotion. Whereas David Cronenberg’s patented body horror has something to … Continue reading →

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Review: The Iron Claw

Posted on April 5, 2024 by philipbrasor

To those of us who do not follow professional wrestling, it’s often difficult to separate the athletics from the theatrics, and one of the strengths of Sean Durkin’s feature about the real-life Von Erich family, who were stars of the … Continue reading →

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