You know, a movie doesn't have to address the big questions in life for it to be enjoyed over here at film eyeballs brain. And like a Michael Haneke film or this impending final season of Lost, not all the ...Read More

Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, “A Town Called Panic” (2009).

While ultimately little more than a vehicle for the singer-songwriter YUI, Midnight Sun (Taiyō no Uta, or Song of the Sun) is a competently directed movie that capitalizes on the lead actress's musical talents. But instead of the usual frothy ...Read More

Norihiro Koizumi, “Midnight Sun” (2006).

Avatar is probably the most beautiful film I’ve seen in the last 12 months. James Cameron’s fantastically detailed vision of the planet Pandora is a sumptuous visual feast: entire villages in lush trees, floating crags of rock, the way ships ...Read More

James Cameron, “Avatar” (2009).

When the DVD booklet warns you that the film you're about to watch shouldn't be thought of a sequel (despite the “2” in the title), but as “a totally new and different cinematic adventure starring the same exciting characters and ...Read More

Russell Mulcahy, “Highlander 2: Renegade Version” (1991).

[SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW, but trust me, most of the plot, including the money shot, is almost all in the trailer anyway.] Paranormal Activity has its conceptual and formal charms, but they, like my patience, wore rapidly thin. Purportedly the home movie ...Read More

Oren Peli, “Paranormal Activity” (2007).

There was a time, back in 1994 when Pulp Fiction came out, when I just couldn't shut up about Quentin Tarantino. In a fit of movie giddiness, I had seen Pulp Fiction on the big screen maybe three times the ...Read More

Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds” (2009).

I've found that advocacy documentaries are the most difficult to write about, because the audience's positive reaction is inevitably premised on the shared opinion that, well, the filmmakers are right. In a sense, there may be no better environment -- ...Read More

Louie Psihoyos, “The Cove” (2009).

The utterly bleak Martyrs is at the crest of a wave of nasty little horror films coming from France, ranging from the excellent (Haute Tension, by Alexandre Aja, who unfortunately hasn't made anything good since) to the terrible (Ils). One ...Read More

Pascal Laugier, “Martyrs” (2008).

It's only August, so it's probably a little early to pull out words from my box of hyperbole, but a second viewing of Kathryn Bigelow's new film The Hurt Locker propels it up onto my year-end list of favorites. The Hurt ...Read More

Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker” (2008).

The very title of Veronica Velasco's comedy, Last Supper No. 3, promises seriality and repetition, and absolutely delivers. Winner of the Best Picture award at the recent 2009 Cinemalaya festival, Last Supper No. 3 is an intelligent little satire about ...Read More

Veronica Velasco, “Last Supper No. 3″ (2009).

The premiere of a new movie from Studio Ghibli is always an event over here at film, eyeballs, brain, and if it's by Hayao Miyazaki, I line up for over an hour to catch it on the big screen. (I ...Read More

Hayao Miyazaki, “Ponyo” (2008).

Park Chan-Wook's new film, Thirst (Bakjwi), is a bloody mess. Quite literally: blood spills on floors, trickles from eyes, spurts from necks, dribbles from mouths, and gushes out of flutes; it gets quaffed, sucked out, licked off, vomited, refrigerated, and ...Read More

Park Chan-wook, “Thirst” (2009).

For a movie with a title like Hubad (Tagalog for "naked"), the promise of heavy breathing and unfettered eros just isn't quite fulfilled. Oh, there's a seething hotbed, all right, but one seething with frustration and repression and lack of ...Read More

Denisa Reyes and Mark Gary, "Hubad" (2009).

There's one flat-out great sequence in Michael Mann's new film, Public Enemies, the kind that makes you wish you were watching another movie. It's a spectacular (and poorly thought-out) shoot-out in a lodge in the Wisconsin woods where John Dillinger ...Read More

Michael Mann, "Public Enemies" (2009).

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 ...Read More

Lee Isaac Chung, "Munyurangabo" (2007).