mantisfists

A look at the downward trajectory of samurai films and the swelling tide of irrelevancy. Samurai movies are some of my favorite genre pictures and also the hardest to convince people to watch. In adolescence, my nerdy fascination with samurai films gave me a sense of uniqueness but, as with all things, that disappeared several years later as I came to realize that I wasn’t as special as previously thought. It was as humbling as the moment I realized other people had also seen  Good Burger... Read Full Story

None can escape the obligations of social interaction in our modern world; at a cocktail party, you must act appropriately, mingling and snatching pigs-in-a-blanket as they pass you by on a silver tray. Spending time with college friends will undoubtedly bring out the loud, brash individual in you. There are as many identities as there are different social circles, and these various identities are subject to constant fluctuation. We all wear masks. Such is the premise that guides Woody... Read Full Story

The Coen Brothers’ 1991 film Barton Fink has been on my “to-do” list for quite some time, and finally I have gotten the chance to watch it. Famous both for its use of visual metaphor and Biblical and literary allusion, Barton Fink is an excellent, albeit rather unfocused, multi-genre picture. It is 1942, and Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a newly successful New York playwright who is offered a chance to work for “Capitol Pictures” in Los Angeles, writing movies. At first reluctant, he... Read Full Story

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…they have their exits, and their entrances…” William Shakespeare’s famous line, from his play As You Like It , seems to be the existentialist wind that pushes forth Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a misanthropic playwright in Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York . A film that has divided critics and audiences, Synecdoche is certainly one of the boldest and most brilliant films I have seen in quite some time, so... Read Full Story

My distaste for the “stoner-slacker” genre of Judd Apatow’s flock is, admittedly, also tinged by a hint of interest and awe- a bunch of friends making Hollywood comedies together. That they give credit where credit is due (Bill Murray, Steve Martin) is only icing on the cake. In I Love You, Man , these twenty and thirtysomethings finally eschew the narcissism and underlying negativity, ending up with a comedy that is actually “feel-good”. Paul Rudd (who seems to be in every movie these days... Read Full Story

The difficulties in capturing historical politics on-screen are numerous; accuracy is essential considering the film has little to do with “history” if it manipulates the facts or leans towards a particular political spectrum. So many films (Ollie Stone, I’m looking at you) distort and expand on reality in such a way that often you are watching the creator’s own impression of the events, rather than an honest recreation. Ron Howard’s newest film, Frost/Nixon , risks political bias and never... Read Full Story

Jim Jarmusch has a new movie coming out in May: The Limits of Control . It stars Isaac De Bankolé, a native Ivorian (from Cote de Ivoire), as a well-dressed assassin, and there could be no better preparation than to watch Ghost Dog , Jarmusch’s 1999 film about hip-hop and urban samurai. Forest Whitaker stars as Ghost Dog, a loner who receives contracts from a mobster in the form of notes attached to a passenger pigeon. Ghost Dog reads up on the “Way of the Samurai”, and the film is... Read Full Story

The Squid and the Whale is Noah Baumbach’s 2005 ode to growing up amidst the snobbery of academics in 1980’s Brooklyn- capturing a time and a place with cinematic fetishism while crafting a fascinating portrait of a particular family, based roughly on Baumbach’s own. Jeff Daniels is a literature professor named Bernard Berkman who’s career is on the decline- as his wife Joan (Laura Linney) begins gaining respect for her own work. Their two sons Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline... Read Full Story

Never has a film done so much with swaying fields of wheat. Andrew Dominik’s Western The Assassination of Jesse James wields the natural elements more effectively than it does its star, Brad Pitt, who plays the infamous outlaw bandit Jesse James. He’s a quiet, troubled, very nearly angsty individual, often smoking cigars and staring into the distance. When a young man named Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) shows up at the James’ gang camp looking for work. A long-time fan of the infamous Jesse... Read Full Story

Released in 2008 by Overture Films, The Visitor has gone largely unnoticed by the general populace.  The film was written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, who’s previous film The Station Agent pointed towards good things. With The Visitor , he cements his talent, crafting a slow-moving realist drama, a contemplation of subjects ranging from culture and art to death and the political atmosphere of post-9/11 New York, all fueled by the beat of a djembe drum. Walter is a quiet, lonely... Read Full Story