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The Coming of Age in a Synthetic World: the High Score Girl Series High Score Girl is a recent video-game inspired romantic comedy framed for television and aimed at millennials. It originally found success as a comic “manga” in 2010 by Rensuke Oshikiri, and just that much tells you quite a bit. The series promises…
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Sometimes films are more interesting for what they represent than for what they are. Such was the case with Penny Marshall’s Riding In Cars with Boys, a film I reviewed in November, and such is the case now with Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies. I had fun searching the web for background material on this…
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by Peter Fraser with David Carson Perhaps we all harbor a secret desire to test our metal against the most daunting forces of nature. How to satisfy that desire in the modern world is the challenge. The possibility of a Jack London-styled adventure has grown all the more exotic in our technology-driven society where common…
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Pop icons arise and fade according to the changing needs of the culture. It has been so since mass culture was birthed from the industrial fires of the late nineteenth century. Who was the “It Girl”? And why? Does anyone still know that if you wanted a quotable on any subject at the beginning of…
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Nothing beats a good short story, one that captures the whole of a life in some subtle gesture. The lifting of a cork from the floor, a boy turning away from a booth at a bazaar, a servant with the legs of a dying man on his shoulders-these images from the masters (Carver, Joyce, Tolstoy)…
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As the film Lost In Translation opens, we find Bill Murray in the back of a cab being driven from the airport to his Tokyo hotel. Murray gives an Oscar-caliber performance as Bob Hams, a movie star whose best years are behind him. He is in Tokyo for photo shoots for ads for the whiskey…
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Mira Nair should be recognized as one of the world’s best directors. Her previous films Salaam Bombay and Kama Sutra were both excellent films and Monsoon Wedding is also. Nair’s films look lush and rich in color and texture. In this film, Nair’s use of rain, as both a metaphor and as a natural weather…
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When viewing a bit of summer fun like Pirates of the Caribbean, one ought to avoid the trap of over thinking, as it may lead to a muddle. What can you really say about a film that is designed, in part at least, to promote a theme park ride? Or for that matter, how do…
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This We All Once Believed: Seabiscuit When we see families in Gary Ross’ nostalgic Seabiscuit, the parents care about one another, the children seem happy, and conflicts revolve around the cosmic tragedies – death, disability, financial loss. The main narrative line of the story follows four individuals stripped of the security and love of their…
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The Good Thief and The Lucky Lady Neil Jordan, (The Crying Game), has crafted a moody, gritty story of Bob Montagnet, an anti-hero of sorts. A con man. A gentleman. A good thief. Based loosely on a 1950’s French film, (Bob Ie Flambeur), The Good Thief (2003) lets us in on the life of Bob, played…
