Jason says: “The tale of the Yang Clan is something special, even in a culture already packed full of martial legends. Its combined simplicity and grandeur makes it an excellent source for Ronny Yu’s latest, and apparent labor of love
Kyle says: “Oscar-nominated actor, director, painter, sculptor, poet, essayist, novelist, installation artist, famous college student and occasional professor, currently Gucci men’s perfume spokesperson, and soon-to-be Broadway play director James Franco is steadily amassing an intriguing body of work as cinema
Jason says: “As with many movies based on true stories, SAVANNAH ends with a few screens of text summing up the lives and accomplishments of its subjects, and for Ward Allen it states that he was an eloquent advocate of
Jason says: “RUROUNI KENSHIN PART ONE: ORIGINS is a comic-book movie, not just in the sense that it’s adapted from a popular manga, but in how it both aims to introduce a lot of favorite elements and tell the story
Chris says: “Mariel Hemingway is an accomplished actress in her own right—she even received an Academy Award nomination while in her teens for Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN. However, before anything else, most people will identify her as Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter and
Jason says: “It doesn’t happen very often, but RUBBERNECK is almost too simple to classify. It’s got characteristics of both a thriller and an indie drama of the character-study variety, but the only thing that seems unique about it is
Chris says: “Remember when someone first stumbled across how eerily Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album synced up to the first forty or so minutes of THE WIZARD OF OZ? With the band denying any intentional links
Jason says: “THE ROOFTOP is overstuffed, like Jay Chou had a half-dozen ideas for his 1960s Taiwanese musical project and couldn’t decide exactly which ones he wanted to use. So he threw in all of them, even if they don’t
Jason says: “RITUAL: A PSYCHOMAGIC STORY is explicitly inspired by the work and philosophy of Alejandro Jodorowsky, and many may find themselves disappointed that, after a very stylish opening, it is never in the same category of strangeness as Jodorowsky’s
Kyle says: “RENGAINE is called a ‘no-budget urban drama’ in the New Directors/New Films program note; this is obvious from the number of duties director Rachid Djaïdani is credited for in the end titles. So let us issue a shout-out