Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights follows the same template as many other biopics, but everything feels amped up a level, probably because of the amount of drugs and the type of star our hero becomes.  It's a story that's ultimately about unlikely (even if unsustainable) families, and the speed and absurdity with which … Continue reading Boogie Nights (1997)

Directed by Anna Rose Holmer The Fits is a very personal film, a coming of age story set entirely in or around a local community center where 11 year old Toni (Royalty Hightower) trains as a boxer alongside her brother before aspiring to join a dance troupe, whose music calls to her through the walls of the … Continue reading The Fits (2015)

Directed by Charles Laughton The Night of the Hunter is a horror movie, I'd say, and what's so fascinating about horror films is that when analyzed years later, you can get a sense of what scared audiences (and thus the greater social world) at a certain time in history.  For example, monsters used to be … Continue reading The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Directed by Joon Ho Bong The Host isn't just a monster movie.  It's a collection of horror and comedy as well as a personal drama between family members growing apart but who are suddenly pushed close together. The main character, Park Gang-Doo (Kang-ho Song), is a struggling father who needs as much growing up to do … Continue reading The Host (2006)

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu "Isn't life disappointing?" "Yes, it is." Tokyo Story is a very melancholic film that deals with the generational gap between a small handful of adults and their visiting elderly parents.  There is a pretty big divide between the two generations (and a third, the grandchildren), but at first this feels one-sided until … Continue reading Tokyo Story (1953)

Directed by Sang-ho Yeon Train to Busan is an extremely entertaining zombie movie.  It's like Snakes on a Plane meets Snowpiercer meets zombies.  While the movie starts off a little stale, setting up the characters and the obligatory failed father who needs to redeem himself, once the zombies show up the film kicks it up a notch. … Continue reading Train to Busan (2016)

Directed by Trey Edward Shults Krisha is a blend of Terrence Malick, John Cassavetes and horror.  It both celebrates and agonizes over the mundane, ordinary moments on a particular day, reflecting the natural beauty of a family in motion while focusing on a woman's guilt and struggle with knowing what she's lost, even as it's … Continue reading Krisha (2015)

Directed by Paul Schrader Mishima is centered around the suicide of a famous writer, Yukio Mishima.  Each of the four chapters is preceded by the 'present,' the day leading up to his death through seppuku, a ritualistic suicide through disembowelment.  The rest of the film tells stories from Mishima's life, narrated by Mishima himself.  There is … Continue reading Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch   Jim Jarmusch likes to find small theaters in everyday life in which we all perform to some degree.  In Down By Law that theater is a prison cell in which three strangers become friends, and in his later films that theater would be a taxi cab (Night on Earth), a public … Continue reading Mystery Train (1989)

Directed by E.L. Katz Small Crimes holds its characters accountable in a way many similar crime films don't, except for in a Coen Brothers film.  The question raised at some point is whether crime pays, and by the end it obviously doesn't. Joe (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is pretty great as a narcissistic, newly released from prison … Continue reading Small Crimes (2017)