Dead Or Alive 2: Birds (2000)

Yakuza assassinations cross-cut with world vision footage of starving children in Africa. CGI birds representing the childhood spirits of our two protagonists. Digital graphics illustrating the geometry of three bullets entering a head at 60 degree angles. A powerful comet sighted against the night sky. The title card “Where are you?” repeated, white text against […]

Ghost Of Mars (2001)

John Carpenter is one of my all time favourite directors. When I first saw John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars (2001) on DVD when it came out, I was pretty disappointed. Then, later, when I found out it was originally intended as another Escape movie that was rewritten after Escape From LA’s lack of success, it […]

Revolver (2005)

I like Guy Ritchie movies the most when they get pretentious. Like, I’m more keen to rewatch something like Wrath Of Man rather than The Gentlemen. And the zenith (so far) of Ritchie’s pretensions has to be Revolver (2005), his return to the gangster genre after the unsuccessful remake of Swept Away. I’ve always been […]

The Headless Woman (2008)

I always loved that in their Criterion Closet YouTube video, Lucrecia Martel selected Carnival Of Souls and said something to the effect of, that it was enough to make one film if it was as great as that. Only after I had watched Martel’s film, The Headless Woman (2008), did I see its connection to […]

Paprika (2006)

Look, I can rewatch Inception anytime, but after my first viewing at the cinema, I remembered thinking, “The imagery wasn’t really that surreal for a movie about dreams.” Sure, there’s the city folding on itself, and the hallway zero gravity fight, but for the most part, it’s pretty standard stuff – the climax is a […]