A few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend from church about films and how he’d recently come to appreciate films in which he could just sit back and watch life unfold. That’s probably as succinct a description as any for Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Still Walking, which follows the events and rhythms of a family […]
Over the next couple of weeks, PopMatters will be focusing on the life and work of Akira Kurosawa, including essays on every one of his films. And here’s how they’re kicking things off, with “A Giant Shadow: The Continuing Influence of Akira Kurosawa on World Cinema”: To most outside of Japan, Kurosawa is synonymous with Japanese […]
A designer provides a nice overview of film title design from the silent era on through 2009: Have you ever thought of what makes you remember a certain movie or TV show? Of course, it’s the story being told, you’ll say. But what about movies such as Goldfinger, Seven and Snatch? What’s the first thing […]
On August 24, 2010, the acclaimed anime filmmaker Satoshi Kon died from pancreatic cancer, which he had been diagnosed with only a few months before. Kon, who directed Paprika, Paranoia Agent, and Perfect Blue, was seen by many as one of the great anime filmmakers — one whose stunningly animated films often delved into disturbing […]
Omer Mozaffar on Majid Majidi’s wonderful The Color of Paradise and the narratives and stereotypes that we often bring to bear when analyzing and critiquing movies: The greater point that I am making, however, is that when we watch an Iranian film, we often view it through this lens: we assume that the film is heavy on […]
One musical trend that I’ve found particularly fascinating over the last few years is the mashup, in which two or more completely dissimilar songs (e.g., “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Bootylicious”, “Every Kinda People” and “Creep”) are mashed together, with the sum being greater than the whole of its parts (e.g., 2ManyDJs’ “Smells like Booty”, Totom’s […]
I’m not sure if the term originated from Kim Ji-woon himself or from some publicist trying to market the film to international and genre audiences, but “kimchi western” has become the unofficial genre designation for The Good, The Bad, The Weird. But what, exactly, is a “kimchi western”? Well, if Kim’s film is any indication, then […]
One of my favorite movie review quotes comes from Chris Vognar’s review of Donnie Darko, in which he writes that Donnie Darko “may be too ambitious for a debut feature, but ambition and imagination still trump mediocrity any day of the week.” Over the years, that has become my “go-to” phrase to describe movies that […]
Back in January of 2009, I came across a trailer for a low-budget indie sci-fi/fantasy film called Ink. I was immediately intrigued by the trailer’s Gilliam/Jeunet/Gaiman vibe, but it wasn’t until last week that I finally got to see the film. I’ll be posting my full review of Ink here at Filmwell soon — Spoiler […]