Posts Tagged 'Japanese Cinema'
As always, it is important to stress that this list is a compilation of my ten personal favorite movies of the year, and not necessarily the "best," though I do consider the top three to be timeless, unassailable classics. The bottom three are, on the other hand, a few that I feel have not gotten the love they deserve on lists like this one. 2019 saw feature film conclusions to two of my all-time favorite television series in Deadwood and El Camino, both of which I considered for this list before ultimately deciding to count them as TV in order to make room for other, equally worthy movies. It is a bit of a cheat, necessary because of the difficulty of ranking my ten favorites out of the 113 movies I managed to see in 2019, so allow me to indulge in a bit more cheating….
Tags: Academy Award, Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Ari Aster, Avengers, Avengers: Endgame, brad pitt, comedy, comedy film, David Dastmalchian, Deadwood, disney, documentary, Dragged Across Concrete, El Camino, Ezra Stead, film review, film reviews, filmmaking, Hail Satan?, hollywood, horror, horror film, horror films, I Heard You Paint Houses, Japanese Cinema, Japanese Film, Joe Pesci, Joel Potrykus, Jojo Rabbit, Joon-ho Bong, Joshua Burge, Leonardo DiCaprio, Loqueesha, martin scorsese, Midsommar, movie, movie review, movies, movies i didnt get, New York, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, One Cut of the Dead, oscar, Oscar nomination, Parasite, Quentin Tarantino, Relaxer, Robert DeNiro, S. Craig Zahler, Serenity, The Fanatic, The Haunting of Sharon Tate, The Irishman, Toy Story 4, Uncut Gems, Under the Silver Lake
Ezra's Favorite Movies Of 2014
This was the year I realized that my annual goal of seeing pretty much every movie released in a given year was more impossible than ever. The reason for this is the exponential growth in the number of films now being released in the digital age. When I started doing these lists back in 2001, there were about 300 official releases per year; now it's closer to 700. With that in mind, I'd like to start with a partial list of movies I meant to see in 2014, but just didn't get to in time. Then, to acknowledge the relatively arbitrary nature of these lists in general, I'm listing my Top 10 in categories by which each film corresponds to another one from my Top 20 (only the Top 10 is ranked in order of preference). It'll make more sense as you read it, I promise.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN (40 movies I didn't see in time for this list, in alphabetical order): Bird People; The Boxtrolls; Calvary; Chef; Citizenfour; Coherence; The Congress; Enemy; Fading Gigolo; Filth; Force Majeure; Foxcatcher; Frank; Fury; Gloria; Happy Christmas; Ida; Joe; A Letter to Momo; Leviathan; Life After Beth; Like Father, Like Son; Lucy; Men, Women & Children; A Million Ways to Die in the West; Mr. Turner; Moebius; A Most Violent Year; Night Moves; Palo Alto; The Rocket; The Sacrament; St. Vincent; Song of the Sea; Starred Up; Stonehearst Asylum; Top Five; 22 Jump Street; Virunga; Wrinkles.
Tags: Academy Award, Academy Awards, action film, Adaptation, animated film, anime, Aubrey de Grey, Basic Instinct, Batman, Before Midnight, best animated feature, Bill Paxton, Birdman, Birdman or: (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Blue Ruin, Boyhood, Charlie Kaufman, Cheap Thrills, Cold in July, comedy, comedy film, David Koechner, Dazed and Confused, Dead Man, Dear White People, documentary, Dogville, Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt, Eminem, Ernest & Celestine, Ezra Stead, Fatal Attraction, film, film review, film reviews, filmmaking, Frank Miller, Frank Miller's Sin City, Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Full Metal Jacket, Gamer, Ghost Dog, Gone Girl, hollywood, horror, horror film, horror films, I Frankenstein, J.K. Simmons, Jake Gyllenhaal, Japanese Cinema, Japanese Film, jason a hill, jason hill, Jim Jarmusch, John Hurt, John Wick, Joon-ho Bong, Juno, Justin Long, Kevin Smith, Knocked Up, Lars von Trier, Locke, Lukas Moodysson, Marie Antoinette, martin scorsese, Michael Keaton, Michael Parks, Miles Teller, movie, movie review, movies, movies i didnt get, Mr. Miyagi, Nightcrawler, No Country for Old Men, Nymph()maniac, Obvious Child, Oculus, Oldboy, Only Lovers Left Alive, oscar, Oscar nomination, Oscars, Patricia Arquette, Ping Pong Summer, Proxy, Quentin Tarantino, R. Lee Ermey, Red State, Rene Russo, Richard Linklater, Rory Cochrane, science fiction, Shion Sono, Show Me Love, Sin City, Sin City 2, Snowpiercer, Sofia Coppola, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Synecdoche New York, The Double, The Final Member, The Guest, The Immigrant, The Immortalists, The Interview, The Karate Kid, The Lego Movie, The Raid 2, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, there will be blood, They Came Together, thriller, Tilda Swinton, Tom Cruise, Tusk, Tyler Perry, Uma Thurman, video games, We Are the Best!, Whiplash, Why Don't You Play in Hell, Will Arnett, winter's bone
7 Movies That Are (Arguably) Better Than The Book
Category Essay, Film Reviews, Movies I Got
This is one of the most persistent clichés of film criticism: that the book is always better than its film adaptation. More often than not, it's true, as the novel is generally able to provide a richer, more nuanced character study , not limited to only two senses the way films are. However, in some cases, less is more. Here are seven films that I would argue are even better than the books on which they are based.
1. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) – Dashiell Hammet's original 1930 detective novel is a masterpiece of stylistic economy, so faithfully adapted by director John Huston that reading the novel is almost like reading an exceptionally detailed treatment for the film. However, eight simple words improvised by Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade make all the difference. When asked what the titular bird sculpture is at the end of the film, Spade says, "It's the stuff that dreams are made of." This classic, oft-quoted line of dialogue has become the most memorable moment of the film, a subtle commentary on filmmaking itself, especially of the Hollywood "Dream Factory" variety, of which The Maltese Falcon was itself a part. The line is nowhere to be found in the book, and that alone is enough to warrant the film's inclusion on this list. Read More
Tags: Akira, American Psycho, anime, Blade Runner, Bret Easton Ellis, Chan-wook Park, comic book, Dae-su Oh, Danny Lloyd, Danny Torrance, Dashiell Hammet, dinosaurs, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Dr. Alan Grant, Ezra Stead, film, film review, film reviews, filmmaking, Garon Tsuchiya, Ghost in the Shell, hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, Ian Somerhalder, Jack Nicholson, Jack Torrance, James Van Der Beek, Japanese Cinema, Japanese Film, Ji-tae Yu, John Huston, Jurassic Park, Katsuhiro Ohtomo, Los Angeles, Mamoru Oshii, manga, Mary Harron, Michael Crichton, Min-sik Choi, Minneapolis, movie, movie review, movies, movies i didnt get, New York, Nobuaki Minegishi, novel, Oldboy, Philip K. Dick, revenge, Ridley Scott, Roger Avery, Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer, Sam Neill, Sam Spade, science fiction, stanley kubrick, Stephen King, television, The Maltese Falcon, The Rules of Attraction, The Shining, Tokyo, TV miniseries, Woo-jin Lee
Ezra's Top 10 Favorite Films Of 2011
Well, it's that time once again, and as always, I didn't get around to a lot of the films I would have liked to see – as I write this, a DVD of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris sits on my desk, glaring at me – but there comes a time when every movie lover has to call it a year. I have somewhat arbitrarily picked today as that time, so here now are my top 10 favorite films of 2011:
# 10) MELANCHOLIA – anyone with whom I talk movies already knows how much I love Lars von Trier, and though this is definitely not my favorite of his films (2003's Dogville still takes that honor), it is nonetheless a striking and powerful depiction of the nature of depression, as well as a highly unusual and compelling look at what the impending apocalypse might feel like. The stunning opening and closing sequences alone make this film impossible to ignore, or to forget. Read More
Tags: 13 Assassins, A Separation, Abbas Kiarostami, Academy Award, action film, akira kurosawa, Albert Brooks, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, All About Eve, Amelie, Asghar Farhadi, Audrey Tautou, Berenice Bejo, Best Picture award, brad pitt, Breaking Bad, Bronson, Bruce Greenwood, Bryan Cranston, Carey Mulligan, Certified Copy, Charles Manson, Christina Hendricks, comedy, comedy film, documentary, Dogville, Drive, Elizabeth Olsen, Ezra Stead, film, film review, film reviews, filmmaking, Gangs of New York, Guillaume Schiffman, hollywood, Hunter McCracken, Japanese Cinema, Japanese Film, Jean Dujardin, Jessica Chastain, John Hawkes, Jonestown, Juliette Binoche, Kelly Reichardt, Kevin McDonald, Lars von Trier, Leila Hatami, Life in a Day, Mad Men, Martha Marcy May Marlene, martin scorsese, Meek's Cutoff, Melancholia, Michel Hazanavicius, Michelle Williams, Midnight in Paris, Minnesota, movie, movie review, movies, New York, Nicolas Winding Refn, No Country for Old Men, oscar, Oscar nomination, Peyman Maadi, Ridley Scott, Rod Rondeaux, Ron Perlman, Ryan Gosling, Sareh Bayat, science fiction, Sean Durkin, Singin' in the Rain, Stephen Meek, Takashi Miike, Terrence Malick, Texas, The Artist, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, The Last King of Scotland, The Tree of Life, the Up series, there will be blood, Touching the Void, Valhalla Rising, westerns, William Shimell, Woody Allen
The American – A Silent Prayer
The American, USA, 2010
Directed by Anton Corbijn
This is a film that exists nervously in the pits of our stomachs. Director Anton Corbijn knows the value of undue paranoia and cleverly exploits his characters' emotional states, birthing a labyrinth of intrigue and questionable motives. Butterflies are present throughout the entire film, existing as both a motif and symbolism for our lead character's life. He has a butterfly tattoo on his hand; he falls asleep reading a book regarding butterflies. People begin to know him by this trademark. In fact, it's one of only a few truths we have about him: he's interested in butterflies, he kills people for a living, and his weakness (like any classic movie character) is love, and in a film as patient and caring as this one, we're afforded the time to focus on all of these truths.
The story itself is fairly simple: an assassin hides in Italy while conducting his last assignment. He is given a task by his boss, Pavel (Johan Leysen), to assist another assassin with a weapons exchange. He builds her a gun. During his stay, he befriends a priest and a prostitute. The dynamic in all of these relationships is the existence of sin. Despite the warm world that Corbijn creates for us, there is an underlying sense of dread throughout the project. He assigns a color palette to the film from the first frame, using warm earth tones to put his audience at ease. Our prostitute is given her own opposing colors, and by the end we don't know which spectra to trust. It's the understanding of small detail that Corbijn shows that is the genuine pay-off for his audience, if we pay close attention. Read More
Tags: Anton Corbijn, cinematography, film, film review, film reviews, filmmaking, George Clooney, Herbert Gronemeyer, hollywood, Italy, Japanese Cinema, Japanese Film, Johan Leysen, Martin Ruhe, Michael Bay, movie, movie review, movies, Mr. Butterfly, Scott Martin, spy films, Steven Soderbergh, Super 35, The American, The Thomas Crown Affair