Category Archives: Movies

Review: Belushi

Posted on December 18, 2021 by philipbrasor

Having not read Bob Woodward’s infamous biography of John Belushi nor seen the even more infamous narrative movie adaptation, I approached R.J. Cutler’s fairly conventional documentary about the legendary actor with few prejudices and left it with more questions than … Continue reading →

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Review: The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

Posted on December 17, 2021 by philipbrasor

Directors Kristina Lindstrom and Kristian Petri position their assertions right up front—the late Luchino Visconti was a famous Communist homosexual—even before they say much about his reputation as one of the most revered filmmakers of all time. Most likely, they … Continue reading →

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Review: Gunda

Posted on December 10, 2021 by philipbrasor

One of the surprising things about Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s wordless black-and-white documentary about the lives of some farm animals, at least in retrospect, is that it was shot on three farms in three different countries. While watching the film … Continue reading →

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Review: Last Night in Soho

Posted on December 8, 2021 by philipbrasor

Because Edgar Wright made his reputation poking fun at big budget genre movies, there’s always a feeling in whatever he does that he’s taking the piss, and from the first frame of his latest, in which it’s difficult to distinguish … Continue reading →

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Review: Minamata Mandala

Posted on November 26, 2021 by philipbrasor

Kazuo Hara’s latest documentary is six hours and 12 minutes, thus making it almost twice as long as his last epic, Sennan Asbestos Disaster. The two documentaries are similar in subject matter and theme, but I would hardly call them … Continue reading →

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Review: Little Girl

Posted on November 19, 2021 by philipbrasor

One of the stubborn myths attached to LGBTQ persons is the belief that their sexuality or gender identity is the result of social exposure. The subject of Sebastien Lifshitz’s documentary, Little Girl, is 8-year-old Sasha, who was assigned male at … Continue reading →

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Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin

Posted on November 13, 2021 by philipbrasor

In the case of this multinational co-production, the usual opening gambit of claiming that the following story is based on true events for once raises arched eyebrows—at least in hindsight. A cursory internet search yields the intelligence that, in fact, … Continue reading →

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Review: City Hall

Posted on November 12, 2021 by philipbrasor

As Frederick Wiseman enters his 10th decade on the planet, his iconic fly-on-the-wall documentary methodology tends to focus more and more on the minutiae of civic discourse. City Hall, which spends a leisurely autumn hanging around the municipal government offices … Continue reading →

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Review: The Donut King

Posted on November 11, 2021 by philipbrasor

Tales of immigrants making it big in their adopted countries are irresistible, regardless of which side of the political divide you find yourself. Liberals appreciate the idea that new blood invigorates society and thus hold such stories up as examples … Continue reading →

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Tokyo International Film Festival 2021

Posted on November 9, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here are links to the reports I wrote for the website of the 34th TIFF. In passing, I would say it was a better festival than it has been for many years, owing mainly to its change of venue to … Continue reading →

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