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Shanghai (2010)
Filmmaker(s): Mikael Håfström

An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

No Lust, Too Cautionary I’ve written before about the tendency in film to couple a love story with some radical political turmoil. The reason is simply that love is not inherently cinematic. Sex is and female attractiveness can be, but I‘m talking here about the...
Published February 4, 2024
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Stoker (2013)
Innocence Ends.
Filmmaker(s): Park Chan-wook

After India Stoker's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.

Not Thirsty Enough Having seen and been unhealthily engaged in ‘Thirst‘ I acquired this. It reminded me of a similar disappointment. One of my most trusted filmmakers is Kar Wai Wong, someone who has expanded my electric cage. His first non-English film 'Blueberry Night‘ was...
Published February 4, 2024
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Fish & Cat (2013)
The circles of time! Is it possible to escape?
Filmmaker(s): Shahram Mokri

A group of students travel to a remote region to participate in a kite-flying event. Next to their camp by the lakeside, they find a restaurant with cooks that treat the students with suspicion. Bizarre events lead to a complicated situation, from which the students cannot escape.

Wandering, not Wondering Gosh I live in such rich disappointment. When I encounter someone who naturally understands cinema and who has the potential to affect me, I want him/her to. I want love to follow beauty. This is an extraordinary film, unique in my experience....
Published February 4, 2024
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Eye in the Sky (2015)
Welcome to the new front line
Filmmaker(s): Gavin Hood

A UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” As American pilot Steve Watts is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute reaching the highest levels of US and British government over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare.

Three Distances My notion of noir is the communication in a film story that the audience is the writer of the world, a world designed to satisfy our urges. Innocent victims are manipulated through coincidence and love. Since Welles, we’ve seen a great many variations...
Published February 3, 2024
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Burning (2018)
The truth is all in your head.
Filmmaker(s): Lee Chang-dong

An aspiring writer goes to the airport to pick up a high school friend returning from a trip to Africa but is disheartened to see her with another man.

Soft Glass Young South Korean filmmakers have a layered vitality one doesn’t find anywhere else. Filmmaking is all about mapping what we have as cinematic conveyance to what we yearn for internally. That’s the game, the expected contract between filmmaker and viewer. We negotiate that...
Published February 3, 2024
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Boarding Gate (2007)
She's losing control again.
Filmmaker(s): Olivier Assayas

A sordid and complex series of events unfolds when an ex-prostitute becomes involved with a couple in Hong Kong.

Asia’s Tectonics Two things are interesting about the film. The first and most discussed is the actress, Asia Argento. She and Beatrice Dalle are similar I think. They both have the quality of fearless commitment – like Emily Watson in “Breaking the Waves” and never...
Published February 1, 2024
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Bluebeard (2009)
Filmmaker(s): Catherine Breillat

Anne (Daphné Baiwir) reads her younger sister, Marie-Catherine (Lola Créton), the story of Bluebeard. In 17th-century France, another set of sisters — also named Anne and Marie-Catherine — are left impoverished by their father's death. Marie-Catherine dreams of marrying into money, and soon falls for wealthy divorcé Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas). Grateful for the chance at a life of comfort, Marie-Catherine marries Bluebeard — in spite of rumors that he has made a hobby of murdering his wives.

Bresson’s Beast It is a sad thing to see the tragedy unfold, that tragedy of growing weariness of life we have impressed on the story of the lost innocence of a girl. There are three such stories here. The least interesting is the ‘fairy tale’...
Published February 1, 2024
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Intacto (2001)
Some are born with luck. Others gamble for it.

An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact.

Shoot the Picture There are a few good filmmakers alive now, ones I credit. Mostly they are distributed in accidental pools of the industry, a couple in Hong Kong, a master in Amsterdam, a few passing through Hollywood it seems. Singles here and there. But...
Published January 30, 2024
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Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)
Turn Off The Light And See What Happens.
Filmmaker(s): Mary Lambert

On a prom-night dare, a trio of high school friends chant an incantation, unleashing an evil spirit from the past with deadly consequences.

Locked in a Box These days the game in horror is a horrible business. Pity the poor filmmaker: she has to have enough formula to give the viewer something to rely on. After all, in a horror film, most of the work is done by...
Published January 24, 2024
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The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
The killer slices without mercy!
Filmmaker(s): Giuliano Carnimeo

A high-rise apartment populated by models, nightclub dancers and call girls becomes the focus of a mysterious serial killer. When a young model named Jennifer and her friend Marilyn move into one of the victims' former apartments, Jennifer becomes the next target and the pair try to identify the killer.

The Stamps When I’m blue, the movies I look for aren’t comedies. Film comedies work too hard, follow too many script formulas and when I am blue it is because I have worked to hard following similar internal scripts. What I need and what you...
Published January 23, 2024
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