I don't think there's any director whose films offer a clearer window into their mind than Nobuhiko Obayashi. I think there will never be any director I will "get" as much as him - and I'm not talking about about a parasocial relationship here, but rather a deep understanding of the worldview, emotions and memories he's trying to get across through his films.
His signature artificiality of his films isn't just a stylistic choice, but also an extension of how…
One discourse I've encountered a lot these past few months is the one about "movies" vs. "cinema"; or in other words "entertainment" vs. "art". "Art is anti-entertainment, and entertainment is anti-art", right? "Oh you like Transformers? You should watch some REAL cinema like Sátántangó instead". Yada yada. I get why people make the distinction, but it feels just as limiting as it is useful. I don't really like bringing it up either, since it inherently comes with a lot of…
Film School Dropouts 2025 - Week 11/52
Actor - Ivor Novello
Without any context, this honestly feels a bit underwhelming. For a movie of feature length there's surprisingly few things actually happening. The first two thirds of the movie are extremely one-dimensional and repetitive, even though the need to build tension for the end wouldn't have allowed this film to work if you just cut it down to short film length.
Besides that, it's really interesting to see Hitchcock warming…
Man, this film just tries too hard. It's acknowledging an issue that's obviously real and present, but then adds absolutely nothing of value for a solid 75 minutes. Have we really gotten to a point where mere acknowledgment can pass as "empowerment"? There's a fine line between artsy and trashy - and while the visuals make the entire thing nice to look at, they ultimately just serve as fancy packaging for what just turns out to be a bunch of…
This movie is a masterclass on how to make a 140 minute long film without giving any depth to any character. What's the point in making a movie that's almost 2.5 hours long if the first 30 minutes are spent fucking while the last 4 hours are spent yelling and cursing 3 times a sentence? I'm really trying hard to figure out what the end goal of Ani's character was. It seems like Sean Baker saw Mikey Madison, thought she…
the last 25 minutes of jazz-driven high speed racing with no dialogue are truly the pinnacle of cinema
