Slow, solemn, reverent biopic, or perhaps hagiopic, on the 13th century Japanese monk, Dogen Zenji, who imported from China the “authentic” Buddhism founded on the central tenet of a sitting meditation, Zazen. The ingenuousness of director Banmei Takahashi, not to be mistaken for ingenuity, comes through steadily in his balanced …
Nominally a post-WWII thriller in the vein of The Third Man, about a German-American peacenik who hopes to be part of the postwar rebuilding effort (as a sleeping-car conductor, of all things) but who finds himself embroiled with Kafka-esque bureaucrats, Patton-esque militarists, and Third Reichian bitter-enders known as Werewolves. Questions …
Spoiler alert: it ends with the bad guy getting killed. More hurt from Kathryn Bigelow in this docudrama (read: hand-held) account of the hunt for Usama Bin Laden. From its conception to execution, the American government’s “Yippee ki yay!” murder of Bin Laden had Hollywood blockbuster written all over it. …
Documentarian Alex Gibney (Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine) takes on the Stuxnet story — and more importantly, its implications for the future of international relations, foreign policy, rules of combat, what have you. You know, global-scale life-and-death stuff. It’s more fun following the narrative if you don’t know …
A would-be Sherlock Holmes for the Nineties: a junk-food junkie (fridge full of pop-top Tab), a substance abuser (Holmes had his occasional cocaine, remember), an untalented songwriter and guitar strummer (in place of a violin), a social recluse who never meets his clients face to face (employing a bemused Watson …
Valued social commentary can only be created by those assiduously invested with a strong predilection towards truth and enlightenment. Female soldiers stationed at a remote Israeli base find war a bore in this feminist service comedy that aspires to a modern day Mr. Roberts while barely generating enough material to …
A musical-comedy lead balloon. The premise is this: Sir Richard Francis Burton, Victorian translator, explorer, sexologist, still alive in the late 20th Century, and employed as head taxidermist at the Toronto Natural History Museum, undertakes an exhibit for the Hall of Contagion on the Canadian flight attendant designated as Patient …
The Zero Theorem runs in a counter-parallel universe to Terry Gilliam’s masterwork, Brazil, a film he’s dedicated a career to remaking. Qohen (Christoph Waltz) is assigned the task of solving the titular hypothesis, an equation that by its very nature – everything adds up to nothing – is impossible to …
Thrillingly Biblical, in both the Old and New Testament sense. In a radioactive, post-war world, Ann Burden (symbolism) lives a lonely life, tending the valley that is her home and also maybe the last unpoisoned place on Earth. Hope for humanity (or at least company) arrives in the form of …
Torpid, stagnant romantic triangle, notwithstanding the amount of locomotion. Twice a week, the titular Zhou Yu, a painter on porcelain, rides the rails to her poet lover, Chen Ching, and en route meets Zhang Jiang, a feet-on-the-ground veterinarian. The film signals a return to action for Gong Li, or anyway …
Concert film with David Bowie performing as Ziggy Stardust for the last time ever at Hammersmith Odeon in 1973.
Remarkable for taking a lurid and ludicrous storyline — a federal prosecutor and aspiring politician plunges (reluctantly) into the world of high-priced escorts, even as the FBI goes after the very service he frequents — stocking it with a solid cast — Patrick Wilson as a twitchy, tortured Paul Newman, …