Category Archives: Film

Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb

I first saw this film a few years ago on Canadian educational TV. My memories of it were dim, even dark, as I thought about it while reading Robert Crumb’s new book Kafka. I recalled a quirky character with big … Continue reading

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Susan J. Napier’s Anime: From Akira To Howl’s Moving Castle

Napier, a professor of Japanese literature and culture, originally wrote this intriguing analysis of anime in 2001. Following the worldwide critical and commercial success of Miyazaki Hayao’s Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle movies, she decided to revisit and revise … Continue reading

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Bernard Rose’s Paperhouse

Craig Clarke wrote this review. This film from director Bernard Rose (who would later helm Candyman and Immortal Beloved) is a delightfully scary look at the blending of dreams and reality. Anna (Charlotte Burke) is an eleven-year-old girl who enjoys … Continue reading

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MTV’s No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded

Craig Clarke wrote this review. Ever since the breakup of Led Zeppelin due to the untimely death of drummer John Bonham, fans have hankered for some sort – any sort, really – of reunion. There have been some teases – … Continue reading

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FilmWorks Pacific’s Paniolo O Hawaii: Cowboys of the Far West

The first cowboys were Mexican vaqueros. It was these men who taught Texans how to use lassoes; how to ride, and how to round up cattle. But fifty years before the Texans started herding cattle, the vaqueros traveled to Hawaii … Continue reading

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Ridley Scott’s Legend

In 1986 I was a fantasy obsessed teenager living in a bedroom painted sunshine yellow, with flowered curtains and nearly every wall and shelf decorated with unicorns. Crystal unicorns, pewter unicorns, porcelain unicorns, unicorn suncatchers, a photo of Lancelot the … Continue reading

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Francis Ford Coppola’s Finian’s Rainbow

Finian’s Rainbow is a particularly tricky movie to review. Is it a lighthearted musical romance? Or is it something deeper? Politically speaking, the original musical upon which the movie was based opened on Broadway in 1947. Though it was milder … Continue reading

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Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away

Rachel Manija Brown wrote this review. I saw this movie at the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood. A Democratic fundraiser was going on across the street, and there were about six people protesting. A young man with a pink Mohawk, … Continue reading

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Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke

Maria Nutick wrote this review. Many Americans perceive Japanese animated films, or anime, as either graphically violent, sexually explicit material aimed at teenage boys, or as loud garish cartoons designed to sell collectibles to small children (think Pokemon or Digimon). … Continue reading

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Acorn Media’s A Mind to Kill, Series One

A Mind to Kill was a really gritty police detective series developed from a 1991 pilot with the series running from 1994 to 2004 and which aired first in Wales. Befitting its setting in Mid Wales, it was indeed filmed … Continue reading

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