Category Archives: Movies

Review: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Posted on January 24, 2020 by philipbrasor

It’s the slightest of serendipities to note that two days after the great Terry Jones died at the age of 77, another Terry who toiled in the same comedy group and, like Jones, a man who made a second career … Continue reading →

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Review: Horse Thieves

Posted on January 20, 2020 by philipbrasor

The unwieldy title of this feature film from Kazakhstan that was trotted out for film festivals is The Horse Thieves, The Road of Time, which is far too much information and points to a loss of clarity as to what … Continue reading →

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Review: The Aeronauts (Into the Sky)

Posted on January 19, 2020 by philipbrasor

About the only way to approach Tom Harper’s two-handed adventure film is as a problem in search of a solution. Though based thinly on a true story (or, more exactly, elements from several true stories), the film’s adventure component is … Continue reading →

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Review: Richard Jewell

Posted on January 18, 2020 by philipbrasor

Though Clint Eastwood’s oft-discussed tendency to inject his personal cultural prejudices into his movies seems to become more pronounced with age, he is more likely to get away with that proclivity in films where he also stars, probably because the … Continue reading →

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Review: Jojo Rabbit

Posted on January 17, 2020 by philipbrasor

Director Taika Waititi sincerely tries to hedge his bets with his Oscar-nominated Nazi comedy by labeling it right off the bat as an “anti-hate satire,” which, of course, gives the impression that the New Zealand director, not-so-fresh off the success … Continue reading →

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Review: Motherless Brooklyn

Posted on January 11, 2020 by philipbrasor

Edward Norton is arguably Hollywood’s most idiosyncratic movie star, a description that will find pushback in some circles for two reasons: Norton doesn’t present as a “star” and his idiosyncrasies aren’t apparent in all the work he’s done. Motherless Brooklyn, … Continue reading →

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Review: Ford vs Ferrari

Posted on January 9, 2020 by philipbrasor

The initial reflexive response to James Mangold’s wannabe epic about the Ford Motor Company’s ambitious entry into the world of auto racing is that it’s late to the 60s nostalgia orgy. As could be predicted with such a high budget … Continue reading →

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Review: Extreme Job

Posted on January 4, 2020 by philipbrasor

After it opened last January, this crime-comedy became South Korea’s second biggest box office success in history, prompting all sorts of speculation as to what exactly it represented to the country’s very large movie-adoring population. Though a few of the … Continue reading →

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Best Movies 2019

Posted on December 29, 2019 by philipbrasor

As it’s that time of year again, here are the movies I liked the most these past 12 months. As usual, in order to qualify a film has to have opened in at least one Japanese theater during the calendar … Continue reading →

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Review: Heavy Trip

Posted on December 28, 2019 by philipbrasor

Though This Is Spinal Tap effectively made it difficult to make fun of rock musicians, particularly those of the heavy metal variety, in movies for eternity, there’s enough native ridiculousness in the genre for extraneous exercises in parody, a dispensation … Continue reading →

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