Category Archives: Movies

Review: The Comeback Trail

Posted on June 8, 2021 by philipbrasor

Boomer entitlement rears its ugly head once again with this overwrought comedy starring three aging A-listers—Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Morgan Freeman—who seem predisposed to ruining whatever recent memories we have of them keeping up their end of … Continue reading →

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Review: Hope Gap

Posted on June 7, 2021 by philipbrasor

Given the generic late-middle-aged divorce drama premise of the story, the various publicity campaigns for Hope Gap focus on casting. Annette Bening, apparently, seems to have some sort of dedicated fan base in Japan, since that’s what the local PR … Continue reading →

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Review: True North

Posted on June 4, 2021 by philipbrasor

Several minutes into this second feature by Eiji Han Shimizu, a Japanese of Korean descent, it’s easy to understand why he decided to make it an animated film. Though there isn’t anything depicted that couldn’t also be depicted easily with … Continue reading →

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Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia

Posted on May 29, 2021 by philipbrasor

Japanese fans of David Byrne may count themselves lucky, or they may not. The preternaturally optimistic rock star’s Broadway show, adapted to the screen by Spike Lee, will initially be shown here in theaters rather than on TV, to which, … Continue reading →

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Review: Amazing Grace

Posted on May 28, 2021 by philipbrasor

The story goes that Aretha Franklin didn’t want this movie released. It was filmed in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church (formerly a movie theater) in Southern California in 1972 in front of a congregation and quite a few industry … Continue reading →

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Review: The Father

Posted on May 14, 2021 by philipbrasor

I had no problem with Anthony Hopkins winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Florian Zeller’s screen adaptation of his own play. I saw all the other nominated performances, and only Hopkins’ stood out. Everyone else, including odds-on … Continue reading →

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Review: Along the Sea

Posted on May 1, 2021 by philipbrasor

Akio Fujimoto’s Along the Sea does a good job of describing Japan’s arcane technical intern training program without actually explicating its rules and procedures. As such, it also goes a considerable distance in providing an idea of Japan’s attitude toward … Continue reading →

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Review: Caught in the Net

Posted on April 24, 2021 by philipbrasor

The clever, almost flippant title of this Czech documentary betrays its slightly self-congratulatory tone. Though the topic is a very serious one—pederasts stalking children online—the focus on superior production values and the game-like execution counteracts the seriousness to a certain … Continue reading →

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Review: The Booksellers

Posted on April 23, 2021 by philipbrasor

D.W. Young’s engrossing documentary attempts to make a case for the physically printed word as the most viable means of extending culture into the future, but  because it focuses on rare booksellers it invariably makes that case as a construct … Continue reading →

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Review: Cheerful Wind

Posted on April 16, 2021 by philipbrasor

K’s Cinema in Shinjuku is presenting a two-month retrospective of Taiwan cinema centered mainly on the work of Hou Hsiao-hsien that includes a lot of films from the 1980s which rarely get shown here any more, despite Hou’s close relationship … Continue reading →

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