What is it about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli that are so consistently impressive? Seeing 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds for the first time reminded me of some of the answers to this question.
Michael Mann's "COLLATERAL"
COLLATERAL is a smashing example of how to take a standard story line and turn it into a fresh, provocative, exciting, and even at times, beautiful tale of violence and self-revelation.
Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie
How many movies can show the main characters getting drunk on ice cream?
I Heart Huckabees
I'm a big fan of "quirky" movies, but this one didn't tickle my funnybone. Nor did it make me pause and think.
By all rights it should have, given the wonderful cast. I mean, Isabelle Huppert and Tippi Hedren in the same film -- what could be more sublime?
Akira Kurosawa's “HIGH AND LOW”
There is a scene in Kurosawa’s High and Low where police emerge from the house of a man, played by Toshiro Mifune (Red Beard), whose lost kidnapping ransom, paid to recover the son of his chauffeur, has caused his total financial ruin. Yet there he is, calmly mowing his lawn with his power mower, while his life collapses around him. He seems to be enjoying himself. Life goes on.
The theme of this movie is religious intolerance. What starts out as “forbidden love” between a small-town Hindu boy and Muslim girl becomes a horror story as they take their “forbidden love” to the big city, Bombay. There they land right in the middle of the vicious religious cultural riots of 1992-1993.
Sue Brooks’ “Japanese Story”
Toni Colette (About a Boy) shines in this fishes-out-of water story.
Guy Maddin's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
This is my first Maddin film. What first came to mind as I was watching it, trying to figure out what to compare it to, was "This looks like what the residents of Nightmare Before Christmas's Halloween Town would have dreamed up had someone asked them to create a sensitive comedy about human sadness."
Ray
I remember a couple of years ago Diana Krall came to the DC area, headlining for Ray Charles. I didn't go to the concert, I was only interested in Krall. Paying so much to see what I considered to be a "vintage" act just didn't seem like a good idea.
Masayuki Suo's SHALL WE DANCE
A ballroom dancing class can be filled by a lot of different types of people - young and old, fat and thin, all different colors, sizes, and shapes. Many of the men are there because their women want them to be. It seems it's the same in Japan as it is in the U.S.
Alien vs. Predator
Okay, Sanaa Lathan is no Sigourney Weaver, I still enjoyed this movie a great deal, despite the pedestrian story and lack of character development.
Alex Proyas' I, ROBOT
Upon watching this a few times after purchasing the DVD I was struck not only by the excellent surround sound and picture quality but by the sophistication of the story and script.
A Short Film About John Bolton
The short film showpieced on this DVD is not Neil Gaiman’s (American Gods) best work. It is a fictionalized look at the artist John Bolton who in real life creates erotic paintings of nude female vampires. (Neil Gaiman also helped develop the English language version of Princess Mononoke.)
Mamoru Oshii's GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE
Mamoru Oshii (Avalon) does it again, this time with a sequel to Ghost in the Shell. Some of the same characters continue. The world of the future is even more detailed and incredible than in the original. There are more philosophical musings about the nature of humanity and technology. Plus, this may be the most incredible piece of animation I have ever seen. But it is not a favorite film of mine, for a couple of reasons.
Cédric Klapisch’s “L'Auberge Espagnol”
Imagine what it would be like as a young man to spend a year in Barcelona with an apartment full of male and female students drawn from all across Europe.
Martin Scorsese's THE AVIATOR
The Aviator is a grand and unique combination of glamour, adventure, intrigue, spectacle, humor, tragedy, and melodrama. It's about big, famous people doing things that we expect big, famous people to do. And it uses all the power that modern filmmaking technology has to offer. But its focus, ultimately, is on people and the things they do. The fact that the people inhabit (and helped create) the world of today is a definite plus, and Scorsese makes the most of this.
Akira Kurosawa's "THE HIDDEN FORTRESS"
Visually, this Kurosawa film (Red Beard, Ikiru, Throne of Blood, Madadayo) as represented on this Criterion DVD is magnificent. The widescreen photography, action scenes, natural surroundings, and Toshiro Mifune's performance are all excellent.
Monster Man
A bar full of amputee rednecks. Road trip guys chased by giant monster truck driven by faceless horror. Sexy scantily-clad hitchhiker. Giant pentagrams. Headless corpses. Fart jokes. Blood and gore up the wazoo. Road kill fantasies. This movie has it all.