Category Archives: Movies

Review: The Cakemaker

Posted on December 2, 2018 by philipbrasor

Israeli director Ofir Raul Graizer’s debut feature is a deceptively wicked take on romantic transference in that his strikingly unusual plot devices don’t seem that striking when they happen since they are so seamessly woven into the fabric of the … Continue reading →

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Review: Hereditary

Posted on December 1, 2018 by philipbrasor

By far the most effective element in Ari Aster’s debut horror movie is Toni Collette’s face. Hereditary veers wildly and often incomprehensibly between domestic psychological drama and occult mystery, and the only thing holding it together is Collette’s command of … Continue reading →

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Review: Killing

Posted on November 29, 2018 by philipbrasor

Director Shinya Tsukamoto wants people to come to his latest feature prepared for something different, which may sound like quasi-spoiler fodder given that it’s Tsukamoto’s first genuine genre film, namely a jidaigeki or, more familiarly, a samurai flick. But anyone … Continue reading →

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Review: Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars

Posted on November 24, 2018 by philipbrasor

Artist biodocs would seem to be easier to pull off than artist biopics, as long as there’s enough available footage. Eric Clapton has been more or less a star since he emerged in mid-60s England as a blues guitar prodigy … Continue reading →

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Review: It Comes at Night

Posted on November 22, 2018 by philipbrasor

At first blush, this fairly modest horror movie by upstart Trey Edward Shults feels like a pale reflection of A Quiet Place, which is probably this year’s most successful horror movie. Both films are about families hiding out in the … Continue reading →

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Review: A Ghost Story

Posted on November 17, 2018 by philipbrasor

Though not a Hollywood film in the least, David Lowery’s A Ghost Story plays with ideas about the paranormal that are fashionable among the bean counters of tinsel town, except that they’re in service to a story about loss and … Continue reading →

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Review: Mandy

Posted on November 10, 2018 by philipbrasor

Panos Cosmatos’s violent revenge thriller is like every other violent revenge thriller and yet unique, owing mainly to its stubborn insistence on describing a specific place and time that has no discernible purpose. Set somewhere in the California wilderness in … Continue reading →

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Review: Bohemian Rhapsody

Posted on November 8, 2018 by philipbrasor

In it’s own limited way, the biopic of the British band Queen is as narratively compromised as the group’s creative output was musically compromised. Leader Freddie Mercury was always open about how his approach to rock was not doctrinnaire; that … Continue reading →

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Review: Ten Years Japan

Posted on November 4, 2018 by philipbrasor

The “Ten Years” series started in Hong Kong in 2015 with an omnibus of shorts depicting the former British territory ten years into the future, and was notably dystopian in tone, which is to be expected, and not just because … Continue reading →

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Tokyo International Film Festival 2018

Posted on November 3, 2018 by philipbrasor

Here are reports I filed for events at TIFF this year. –History Lessons press conference –Before the Frost press conference –The Bra press conference –Three Husbands press conference (ignore the title) –The Father’s Shadow press conference –Just Only Love press … Continue reading →

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