Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Naomi Nishida
Genre: Japan, Comedy, Curious, Fantasy
When Chris and I first saw Happiness of the Katakuris several years ago, we weren’t exactly impressed. Sometimes it just takes a second round. Lately I find it delightfully campy like the Rocky Horror Picture Show with its random wacky balls-out awkwardly endearing song and dance numbers (even enka karaoke), or harkening Beetlejuice when it employs grim prosthetics and surreal stop-animation, or even Sound of Music on acid. Anything now, it seems, is amazingly tame …

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams
Genre: Drama
Release Date: Oct 24 (limited), Nov 7 (wide)

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SHE SAID:
If you’re a fan of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation), you may worry that, as unique as he is, he may be a teensy bit predictable. Oh, okay so will his next movie have another adorable unkempt paranoid loser who can’t cease his neuroses for one second to realize that he’s truly happy? With Synecdoche, New …

This looks amazing. Simply amazing. I’ll definitely be looking forward to this one. Check out the trailer.

I’ve been meaning to write this for quite some time, but it took an article from Twitch (and my being way too busy to see any new films this week) to spur me to actually put this list down on paper.
Now, whatever your opinions are on anime, there’s no doubt you harbor a few reservations toward it. Even if you like anime, you have to worry about the “animation is for children” stigma from the uninitiated, or the dreaded badge of the Otaku from those who potentially are (Rachel Bigler …

Paprika
Note: If you’re already a fan of anime and familiar with Satoshi Kon, skip to the third paragraph.
HE SAID
Truth be told, anime is no different than any other storytelling medium. The rabid otaku would like you to believe otherwise, but really, it’s just like everything else. There’s a vast wasteland of uninspired, tedious dreck, above which rises a small mountain of notable works. The majority of the forget-ables are children’s shows, much like what plays on the Cartoon Network or Saturday morning; endless serialized battles, or tales of consumerist …

The main motley crew consists of an oversized “Happy Meal”: whiny egotistical Master Shake, levitating sleeve of french fries and voice of reason Frylock, and a naïve little raw meatball named Meatwad.

Given my reaction to Sion Sono’s Suicide Circle (you can read the rather embarrassing review here), one might be surprised I went out of my way to view another film by him. To be honest, I’m not the type to dismiss a director for a single bad run. And you know what? I’m pretty glad I did. Writer and Director Sion Sono’s modern tale of the Erotic-Grotesque, is at once repulsive and fascinating, and shows a near exponential evolution in his skill as a film craftsman. However, viewer …

Going into David Lynch’s Inland Empire I found myself somewhat apprehensive. You see, for the longest time I’ve been a David Lynch fan, but in recent years his films have been left to languish on our DVD shelves. It’s not that they’re uninteresting. It’s just that they don’t muster the same allure as when I was a younger, more fiercely fanatical film buff. It got to the point where I’ve even sold off my copies of Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart to make room for more enticing fare …

A landmark film in every respect, Jigoku (Hell, aka: The Sinners of Hell), directed by the “father of Japanese horror,” Nobuo Nakagawa (Duel at Lightning Pass), is rife with Faustian allegory, religious symbolism, theological meditations, and brilliantly innovative special effects. The film has since been remade twice, by Tatsumi Kumashiro (The Inferno) and cult favorite Teruo Ishii (Japanese Hell) respectively, and inspired such American films as The Cell and What Dreams May Come. But after forty years, it is still Nakagawa’s original that stands head and shoulders above the rest
The …

With director Takashi Miike, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Whether stoic dramas (Sabu), gonzo comedies (Zebraman), gross-out masterpieces (Ichi the Killer) or radical takes on tried and true genres (Gozu), you can be sure you’re in for something you’ve never seen before. This film has been described as a live action Miyazaki tale, and while it certainly has a lot in common with Spirited Away, it’s definitely more Miike than Miyazaki. In fact, this cinematic tale of fantastical goblins and heroic tweens is actually a …

A friend once jokingly said, “if you expect the worst from the world, you’ll never be disappointed”. Such must be the mantra of paranoid psychopaths like Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto, director of Tetsuo, actor in Ichi the Killer) who wanders through Tokyo with his only friend (a video camera) and a supposed mission: to find others with the “Fear”. An invisible drone, he emphatically creates whatever he wants to see in his encapsulating society (director Shimizu accomplishes this by cleverly melding ethereal and tangible–spooky ghouls and real-life maniacs). His hub is …

Aman (Tadanobu Asano, Party 7, Ichi the Killer) is having a bit of trouble with his wife (Reika Hashimoto). Every time he kills her, even though he is careful to bury her body deep in the woods, he finds her well and healthy inside his house, ready to deliver him a night’s worth of frenzied ass-kicking. Kobayashi (Ittoku Kishibe, Zatoichi), a salaryman, has a bit of a problem as well. Due to an unfortunate incident at famed hypnotist, and self proclaimed Casanova, Tiger Aoyama’s (Hiroshi Abe) sold-out show he has …

Perpetually oscillating between the disturbing, mysterious, perverted, horrific, explosive, meditative, surreal, hilarious, and introspective, Gantz is one of the most entertaining, and frankly, best animes I’ve seen in recent years.

SHE SAID: Wow, incredible. I’m just gonna say right off the bat that if surreal is your dig, you’ll love this movie. If you’ve ever pondered mortality, take a test-run. You’ll hop into anti-hero Minami’s 1965 Mustang convertible (my aunt had one of these bad-boys; they are niiice!) and vroom off to Nagoya to drop off excessively paranoid Ozaki at a “disposal” facility, as ordered by the Yakuza head-honcho. This is a particularly difficult task for the reluctant chauffeur because he is indebted to Ozaki for saving his life. …