A Far-Flung Correspondent celebrates Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1997 masterwork, newly released on the Criterion Collection.
A Blu-ray guide to all of the cool horror movie physical releases of the season.
An interview with writer/director Gareth Evans about his gory pagan horror film, Apostle.
A preview of New York City's upcoming Japan Cuts festival, which runs from July 19-29.
Reviews from the New York Film Festival of the latest by Nancy Buirski and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
A preview of this year's Japan Cuts festival, which runs from July 13-23.
A report from the Cannes Film Festival on the latest from Michael Haneke, Noah Baumbach and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Matt writes: Legendary French New Wave icon Agnès Varda was honored at the third annual Ebert Tribute ceremony during this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Brian Tallerico covered the event at RogerEbert.com, while Chaz Ebert assisted in putting together a Roger Favorites entry on Varda, compiling Roger's reviews of the director's work. Roger felt that Varda's 2008 film, "The Beaches of Agnès," contained “the most poetic shot about the cinema” that he had ever seen, in which “two old fishermen, who were young when she first filmed them, watch themselves on a screen” mounted on “an old market cart that they push through the nighttime streets of their village.”
Matt writes: In his captivating 2005 memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, Gene Wilder reflected on his experience of making Mel Brooks' 1974 comic masterpiece, "Young Frankenstein." He likened making the picture to "taking a small breath of Heaven" each day, and that is what the film feels like every time I watch it. Wilder passed away on August 29th at age 83, leaving behind a timeless legacy that was celebrated at RogerEbert.com with Peter Sobczynski's beautiful obituary. Ebert himself gave four stars to several Wilder classics, including 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," 1974's "Blazing Saddles" and of course, 1974's "Young Frankenstein," a film that earned Wilder an Oscar nomination for the screenplay he co-authored with director Mel Brooks. In his review, Roger wrote that the film "shows artistic growth and a more sure-handed control of the material by a director who once seemed willing to do literally anything for a laugh. It’s more confident and less breathless."
A report on three very different films from Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival.
A preview of the 2016 New York Asian Film Festival, including Sammo Hung's "My Beloved Bodyguard" and Yee-sum Luk's "Lazy Hazy Crazy."
A report from NYFF on Robert Zemeckis' "The Walk".
A dispatch from the 2014 NYFF, including "Hill of Freedom," "The Princess of France," "Life of Riley" and "Two Shots Fired."
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Dreamy sci-fi "Real" and the hilarious "Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa" at the New York Film Festival.
Look at it this way. We have the chance to see virtually every American film that's released, and many of the English language films in general. But with the crisis in U.S. distribution, the only foreign-language films are those someone paid hard cash for, and risked opening here. "You always like those foreign films," I'm told, often by someone making it sound like a failing. Not always, but often. They tend to involve characters of intelligence and complexity. If
Q. I guess I saw a different movie from you, but "The Informant!" movie offended in the worst way -- it was boring! Matt Damon was boring, the dialogue was boring, the direction was boring. You need to curb your crushes on movie stars and start critiquing movies again based on their merits, not on how much your heart throbs. After giving this piece of crap four stars, you have lost all credibility. I wrote my newspaper, suggesting they drop you and rehire the local movie reviewer who recently lost his job. You aren't worth the money they pay.
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