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Insomnia (2002)
A tough cop. A brilliant killer. An unspeakable crime.
Filmmaker(s): Christopher Nolan

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

Waking Life element that makes cinema unique is the ability to fold: to shuffle time and narrative both by the mind and eye. Nolan showed great promise with ‘Following’, built around a very ambitious narrative structure. It moved the notion of narration way in front of...


Published October 27, 2022
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Something evil has returned to Hogwarts!
Filmmaker(s): Chris Columbus

Cars fly, trees fight back, and a mysterious house-elf comes to warn Harry Potter at the start of his second year at Hogwarts. Adventure and danger await when bloody writing on a wall announces: The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. To save Hogwarts will require all of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s magical abilities and courage.

Shakespearian Architecture did not like the first Potter film. Indeed, I've been generally unimpressed by all the manufactured Hollywood spectacles that have been moving through the promotional pipeline. So this one caught me unawares. One element of its craft was done so very well, that...


Published March 7, 2025
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Minority Report (2002)
Everybody runs.
Filmmaker(s): Steven Spielberg

John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.

The Ghost of Christie continues in his reborn quest to be an intelligent filmmaker. Once again, he starts with an idea that is remarkably sophisticated. And once again his biggest enemy is himself as he lards on all the junk he is addicted to. First the...


Published July 28, 2024
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Amélie (2001)
She’ll change your life.
Filmmaker(s): Jean-Pierre Jeunet

At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?

Life, A User's Manual avoided this film for ever-so-long because of what I had heard about it. One would believe that this is a well-photographed simple sweet story. That somehow it has something to do with the adventures of a sweet girl-woman. Well, it is....


Published May 13, 2022
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Sex and Lucia (2001)
Filmmaker(s): Julio Medem

Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.

And the Story Starts Again Halfway reality. I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing this soon after Ruiz's Proust. Both about writers creating a life. Time folding. Narrative layers. The three sisters from 'Alice in Wonderland,' here named Alsi/Elana, Lucia (the Alice, an anagram, in fact...


Published October 31, 2022
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Go (1999)
Life begins at 3am.
Filmmaker(s): Doug Liman

Grocery store clerk Simon occasionally sells drugs from his cash register at work, so when soap opera actors Adam and Zack come looking for Ecstasy on a quiet Christmas Eve, they are surprised to find Ronna covering his shift. Desperate for money, Ronna decides to become an impromptu drug dealer, unaware that Adam and Zack are secretly working for obsessed narcotics officer Burke.

Unbearable Lightness of Going and commentors have beaten to death the Pulp Fiction' comparisons. Yes, this has parallel stories, time folding (but not the time shuffling of Pulp'), black and white shuffling, guns drugs and ironic violence, diner scenes and a hip perspective. But to...


Published May 13, 2022
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Audition (1999)
She always gets a part.
Filmmaker(s): Takashi Miike

Seven years after the death of his wife, widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu is enchanted by the quiet Asami. But soon things take a twisted turn as Asami isn’t what she seems to be.

Simple Folding of a Love Story forget that ‘Casablanca’ was a B-movie, made quickly and cheaply. Its success depended on its unimportance -- several modern trends were being followed by the various artists involved and they had the freedom to go a little further...


Published October 26, 2022
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Marcel Proust’s Time Regained (1999)
Filmmaker(s): Raúl Ruiz

In early 1920s France, an author, lying on his deathbed, looks at various photographs and is flooded with memories of the people and events that have shaped his life.

Recognition, Invention, Counter-regret is one of the most ambitious film projects I have seen, risky and successful. It is not successful Proust in my opinion, something different but similar. Proust used the magic of words to weave a life out of remembered fragments. That magic depends...


Published December 4, 2024
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Gummo (1997)
Prepare to visit a town you'd never want to call home.
Filmmaker(s): Harmony Korine

Solomon and Tummler are two teenagers killing time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.

She's Been Dead a Long Time with the Movie Camera' meets ‘La Notte' meets ‘Harvey' through ‘Donnie Darko' -- and is as effective as any of them. And as tuned to video as other masters are to film. I was really impressed, and that's saying...


Published January 23, 2024
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Last Man Standing (1996)
In a town with no justice, there is only one law... Every man for himself.
Filmmaker(s): Walter Hill

John Smith is a mysterious stranger who is drawn into a vicious war between two Prohibition-era gangs. In a dangerous game, he switches allegiances from one to another, offering his services to the highest bidder. As the death toll mounts, Smith takes the law into his own hands in a deadly race to stay alive.

Kurosawa on Kurosawa of film have great fun with situations like this. Here we have three films (‘Yojimbo,' 'Fistful,' and ‘Last Man') with the same script but entirely different cinematic philosophies. All do well at what they attempt. Kurosawa is one of the great innovators of...


Published February 27, 2023
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