Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

The wave of Best Of 2010s lists prompted me to note down quite a few recommendations. Both Lewis Rice O’Donnell and Axel Carrington put this title on their lists and that’s two people whose tastes in cinema I trust. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) is a slow, […]

Opening Night (1977)

I remember watching Opening Night (1977) a long time ago when I borrowed the Criterion Collection Cassavetes boxset from the uni library. I enjoyed it though I felt like I was missing something, maybe. You hear so much about John Cassavetes and then you watch one of his movies, and it’s such a singular experience. […]

Branded To Kill (1967)

Every hip movie about a hitman must have taken something from the Japanese cult classic Branded To Kill (1967; Koroshi no rakuin); for example, Jim Jarmusch lifted a drain-pipe kill from it for Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai. Directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Branded To Kill is a dazzling, dark, funny […]

Crawl (2019)

Look, I enjoyed the Blake Lively versus a shark flick, The Shallows, so when Crawl (2019) came out this year, released quietly without any critic screenings, I was hoping for more of the same – just a different critter. Thrillers like this are a succession of obstacles for the beleaguered protagonist, and are not for […]

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Seeing this pop up on a few friends’ Best of 2010s list promoted me to finally watch Shin Godzilla (2016; Shin Gōjira), which is available to stream on SBS OnDemand. Though I haven’t seen many of the Japanese made Godzilla films, I always think that the American versions have a big flaw to overcome: how do […]