GHOST ACTRESS details the odd doings at a movie studio in Japan. Unlike the usual make-them-jump-and-scream approach to telling this story, writer/ director Hideo Nakata, who wrote and directed the Japanese film, THE RING, on which the current American release is based, has opted for creating a mood of gradually increasing unease tempered with the… Read More »
SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, THE
Studio Ghibli has taken Mary Nortons classic novel, The Borrowers and made it uniquely its own, but its done so without losing what is best in Nortons story. The adaptation by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa may have been transferred the action to Japan, but the basic elements of loneliness, friendship, and the fragility of… Read More »
THE WORLD’S END
The Cornetto Trilogy comes to a superb conclusion with THE WORLDS END. Director Edgar Wright again teams with the regular cast of co-writer Simon Pegg as the anti-hero, and Nick Frost as the humorless corporate lawyer, along with newcomers Eddie Marsan as the grinning bunny rabbit of a car salesman, Paddy Considine as the enterperneur… Read More »
RETURNER
Perhaps there is a cultural divide that prevents those of us not steeped in all things Japanese from seeing that RETURNER, which did boffo business in Japan, is actually a fine piece of filmmaking. Perhaps there are subtle nuances that we cannot appreciate despite our best efforts at trying to find them. And perhaps Madonna really can… Read More »
APPLESEED (Appurushido)
Anime as a whole is marked by its sophisticated visuals and even more sophisticated consideration of the human condition. This is a genre that is not afraid to ponder deep philosophical questions and challenge its audience to consider ideas that dont always have an easy answer, if there is any answer at all. APPLESEED, based… Read More »
DOPPELGANGER (Dopperugenga) DVD
DOPPELGANGER is one of those deliciously off-beat films that, barring a name filmmaker or star, have an annoying tendency to fly under the radar of most film lovers. It starts out as an interesting, if somewhat formulaic horror tale about a scientist (Koji Yakusho) who may or may not be going insane after his assistant… Read More »
DOPPELGANGER (Dopperugenga)
DOPPELGANGER is a sly excursion into the paranormal. It takes the story of the doppelganger, in this case a sort of mirror self, and expands on the idea that to see ones own doppelganger means death. Director and co-writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa starts there and then tweaks the genre and the audiences expectations, subtly changing from… Read More »