Review Sep 12, 2013

'Strutter'

by Giovanni Fazio

Allison Anders started off as a scrappy indie filmmaker — cutting her no-budget first feature, “Border Radio,” after hours at the UCLA film school — and after a flirtation with mainstream success in the 1990s (the iconic “Gas Food Lodging” and “Grace of My ...

Review Sep 12, 2013

'Les Saveurs du Palais'

by Kaori Shoji

In France, female chefs rarely get to the top — and when they do, gender issues are rife. One way to deal with it is simply to ignore it, and in this story of chef Hortense Laborie (based on the real-life Daniele Delpeuch) it ...

Small Screen Sep 12, 2013

'Minnasan, Sayonara! (See You Tomorrow, Everyone)'

by Mark Schilling

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) On Oct. 14, Third Window Films (U.K.) will release an English-subbed DVD of Yoshihiro Nakamura’s “Minnasan, Sayonara! (See You Tomorrow, Everyone).” Starring Gaku Hamada as a boy who vows to spend his life in his Tokyo ...

Small Screen Sep 12, 2013

'Paranorman'

by Giovanni Fazio

Directors: Chris Butler, Sam Fell Language: English Oregon’s Laika stop-motion studio follows up 2009′s excellent “Coraline.” Eleven-year-old Norman can talk to the spirits, but when he warns that a long-dead witch is coming back for revenge, people just think it’s freak-boy trippin’ out, so ...

Small Screen Sep 12, 2013

'Suits'

by Kaori Shoji

Director: Various Language: English “Suits,” the 2011 TV series, is now available for rental. Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) is a brilliant but feckless young college dropout who runs from the scene of a botched drug deal and is miraculously picked up by New ...

Film Sep 5, 2013

Director James Mangold puts soul into Wolverine's demons

by Giovanni Fazio

“The Wolverine” may look like just another in a long line of superhero movies to hit the screen this year — it’s the latest installment in Marvel’s “X-Men” franchise — but it’s certainly the first one directed by a guy who cites director Yasujiro ...

Film Sep 5, 2013

Kobayashi film explores Japan's suicide problem

by Mark Schilling

A folk-singer-turned-filmmaker who went to France in 1981 to apprentice under his idol François Truffaut, Masahiro Kobayashi may have failed in his quest (he couldn’t work up the courage to press Truffaut’s doorbell), but after returning to Japan became a prolific scriptwriter for pinku ...

Review Sep 5, 2013

'Nihon no Higeki (Japan's Tragedy)'

by Mark Schilling

What is a good death? For certain Japanese Buddhist priests it was sokushinbutsu — self-mummification. As practiced by members of the Shingon sect, it was a decade-long process that culminated with the priest’s descent into a stone tomb to meditate in darkness, without food ...

Review Sep 5, 2013

'Side Effects'

by Giovanni Fazio

Director Steven Soderbergh’s retirement from cinema after a career of 30-plus years has been much ballyhooed, and is hopefully only temporary. But if “Side Effects” turns out to be his last movie, it’s a shame, because this one shows him at the top of ...

Review Sep 5, 2013

'Upside Down'

by Kaori Shoji

Here it is: the movie equivalent of a crazy, distracting, impossibly attractive lover. Everything about “Upside Down” is nutso preposterous but it draws you in and locks you in a warm embrace, declaring undying love and promising mystery and eternal longing forever more. If ...

Review Sep 5, 2013

'Laurence Anyways'

by Kaori Shoji

Perhaps it’s better to know the director before going in to see “Laurence Anyways”: Xavier Dolan is all of 23 years old, yet this is already the Quebecois filmmaker’s fourth feature. In other words, be prepared to cut the prolific (and many say brilliant) ...