「別に意味なんかないよ」"It doesn't mean anything"

One of my favorite Japanese movies of the century so far, and probably my all-time favorite movie about being a teenager. The story is simple: a group of high-school students has formed a rock band and are getting ready to play a few songs, including the titular "Linda Linda" by the Blue Hearts, at their school's annual cultural festival. One conventional way to approach this story would be to come up with a bunch of contrivances…

Être laide, c'est ça la mort. Tant que je suis belle, je suis vivante et dix fois plus que les autres.

The TV streaming service just added this, which seemed like a sign from the universe that I was due for another rewatch of one of my favorite movies of all time. Rather than attempt some kind of comprehensive overview, I just want to talk about one pivotal scene.

About 40 minutes in, when two musicians are showing Cléo…

It does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty!

I knew that for my 500th review I had to go big or go home. It had to be a really good, maybe even great movie. But then I thought, why stop at great? Why not watch a perfect movie? Why not watch... Clueless? Seriously, does this have any flaws? As if!

Let's start with the production design. The bright colors and impossibly fashionable high school students immediately tell us…

I picked this out of the many French comedies on Netflix because I saw Bae Doona’s name in the credits, and I have to it I was somewhat disappointed to find that she’s only in about five minutes of the movie. She plays a woman in Korea who’s exchanging messages over instagram with Alain Chabat’s French chef when she casually mentions she wishes he could be there to see the cherry blossoms in Seoul. He, being a lonely middle-aged man,…

A TOM CRUISE PRODUCTION

Hell yeah it is. Overall doesn't quite reach the peak reached somewhere around Rogue Nation, but this is still a banger. The setpieces are as good as anything the series has pulled off, and Christopher McQuarrie has gotten cross-cutting among multiple action scenes down to a science. The non-action stuff is somewhat less compelling, but using an array of insanely charismatic actors like Tramell Tillman and Hannah Waddingham in tiny roles helps the exposition go down…

I saw this many years ago on a bootleg VHS and liking it, but my taste must have evolved since then because this is just not good. It’s a neo-noir with Yuya Uchida as a private detective in Paris tasked with following a rich businessman's mistress and Rie Miyazawa as his plucky assistant. Director Koji Wakamatsu, steering away from pink films into more conventional fare, keeps things looking good for the most part and has fun contrasting the Haussmannian…