[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Japan Cuts frequently programs movies about amateur filmmakers—a...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] When introducing Japan Cuts’ recent screening of Toshiharu Ikeda’s...

Nezumikozo Jirokichi—recently screened as part of Japan Cuts’ Shorts Program 2–managed to hit three major categories on my annual...

[The following review contains frank descriptions of sexually explicit material (albeit in a tasteful, artistic context); YOU HAVE BEEN...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.] The Box Man is based on a Kobo Abe novel that is—according to my...

Recently, I’ve noticed that some amateur critics online (particularly on Twitter, but elsewhere, as well) tend to evaluate films as...

Czech filmmaker Jiří Barta’s stop motion adaptation of The Pied Piper is a triumph of style as substance. Every frame is both...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.] I somehow missed Junya Okabe’s ZVP when it was originally released on...

Star vehicles for musicians are hardly a rarity in Hollywood—after all, creatively bankrupt studio executives are perfectly willing to...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The first time I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I felt...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The opening scenes of Children of the Great Buddha don’t really...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The Sentimental Idiot is a major departure from the other Hiroshi Shimizu...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Hiroshi Shimizu’s Tomorrow There Will Be Fine Weather is a...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WANRED!] Unlike Angel’s Egg and Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis, Toei’s Bounty...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] It’s tempting to reduce I Saw the TV Glow to its obvious stylistic...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] What I admire most about director Ryusuke Hamaguchi is the clarity...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Although the Criterion Channel’s description neglects to advertise...

When I previously wrote about benshi—the live narrators that would contextualize (and, on occasion, totally reinterpret) the silent...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Kenji Misumi’s Ken (or The Sword, if you prefer translated titles)...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Yotsuya Kaidan is Japan’s most popular and frequently adapted ghost...