Monthly Archives June 2009

Lee Isaac Chung, "Munyurangabo" (2007).

The narrative parsimony of Munyurangabo is such that revealing the plot, even in a synopsis, would spoil the pleasures of the slow, patient unfolding of events. They’re not “spoilers” per se, but each tiny revelation of the backstory – people’s relationships to each other, or the purpose of their trip, for instance — forces the [...]

Pete Docter, "Up" (2009).

If there’s anything a little disappointing — other than my friend Luna’s legitimate complaint about the lack of girls, which was perhaps the reason why my daughter wasn’t interested in seeing it again — it’s that Up doesn’t quite fulfill the promise of its title. (Is it still a preposition if the word stands alone? [...]

Some Thoughts after Seeing Lee Isaac Chung's “Munyurangabo”.

Lee Isaac Chung’s Munyurangabo (2007) has been one of the more critically-acclaimed releases of the year so far, and the rave reviews alone should have spurred viewers into theaters. But surely its “exotic” provenance – made by a Korean American director, filmed entirely in the language of Kinyarwanda, written by two Americans (Samuel Anderson, the [...]

Jean-Luc Godard, "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her" (1967).

In trying to slash my way through the thicket of signifiers that is 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle), it struck me that the film was probably Godard’s way of doing the same thing: trying to make sense of the untrammeled, vertiginous proliferation of words [...]

Nagisa Oshima, "Night and Fog in Japan" (1960).

“This isn’t a wedding, this is a funeral!” spits an angry wedding crasher in Oshima’s Night and Fog in Japan (Nihon no yoru to kiri). The wedding, not a particularly happy one at this point, is between two members of the left-wing student movement in Japan; the funeral is for the movement itself, its members [...]

Thirty Random Things.

The most-read page on this blog, which I find kind of odd, is the About page. (Second is my entry on Slumdog Millionaire.) The About page is something that WordPress attaches automatically when you make a page for the first time. I never gave much thought to it, just pasting a post from my other [...]

Nagisa Oshima, "Death by Hanging" (1968).

Death by Hanging (Koshikei) begins with a question – no, a demand: Are you for or against the abolition of the death penalty? It’s a demand specifically directed at the audience, and the film allows for no fence-sitting. This claustrophobic, angry, powerful black comedy demands to be seen as well. I can honestly say I’ve [...]

Ace Hannah, "Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus" (2009).

After seeing the viral trailer, a co-worker of mine said, “I’m just glad this movie even exists.” I understand his point. Conceptually, at least, the premise was promising in and of itself: an homage to monster B-movies of old, two lead actors who were footnotes of the ‘80s, and most important, a clear-eyed view of [...]

Nagisa Oshima, "A Town of Love and Hope" (1959).

Nagisa Oshima’s debut feature film, A Town of Love and Hope, also known as Street of Love and Hope (Ai to kibo no machi) – a title apparently forced upon the movie by the studio, which freaked after seeing it the first time – is set in a Tokyo with not much of either. Certainly [...]