Jason says: “A LITTLE POND’s goal is to educate its audience about the Nogunri massacre of 1950, and it succeeds: It presents a reconstruction of that shameful incident in the best detail that the filmmakers could extrapolate. It is almost
Jason says: “It’s not that you can’t make a scary, surprising vampire movie any more – my last two trips to this festival delivered LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and THIRST, so it can be done. It’s just hard; the
Jason says: “So, here’s my question: If you lived in this tiny Japanese village, what sort of evidence would you need to declare that Rinco’s cooking has magical wish-granting powers? After all, in the sort of small town where everybody knows
Jason says: “Mamoru Hosoda perhaps didn’t make a huge name for himself with THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, but he made a very good animated film that told a fantastical science fiction story that was also very emotionally grounded.
Jason says: “A frustrating aspect of seeing foreign films at festivals is that they tend to be very directer-oriented, so if it’s a performance that catches one’s eye, the most likely situation for seeing that actor again is if he/she
Jason says: “Crime movies are filled with hitmen, to the extent that, if these numbers existed in the real world, it would be a shock if any potential murder victim lived more than a couple of days and nobody could make
Jason says: “It may have improved in the two weeks since I headed north for this film festival, but the summer movie line-up for 2010 could be described as uninspiring. It’s enough to make me wonder why Universal hasn’t found
Michael says: “This one is a bit of a mind-bender. Trúc is a young Vietnamese woman going to college in a tiny town in the remote German mountains. Feeling alienated and alone, she takes a guided tour of a nearby
Michael says: “Low-key, well told story of the struggle with addiction as a young man and his foster brother try to find a path in life. Strong performance by Will Poulter. 4 cats“
Michael says: “First half is a playful, passionate, and utterly convincing tale of two people falling in love, then a shift when the realities of two people who want very different things out of life make the last half painful