Sara and the boys left for Florida (Grayton Beach) last night for week. Safa isn’t with me until Monday. She and I were supposed to join them for the last half of the week, but things got complicated, so I’m home alone. Abandoned. The upside: All day I’ve been blasting music from my Mac Mini […]

I’m excited. Students from my anime class (grads from my first-year writing seminar in the fall — oh heck, let’s just give their names: Levy and Kevin) informed me today of the upcoming U.S. release this summer of the latest animated film by Kon Satoshi (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent). It’s called […]

I saw Letters from Iwo Jima a few weeks ago on the invitation of a colleague and I guess I proved that I’m not a typical American by not overwhlemingly liking it as many others have. It’s a very good film — I especially liked the muted palette — and there was a certain (but […]

Not as funny as all the hype, but plenty guffaw-inducing nonetheless. I went to see Borat by myself, so maybe it’s funnier in a group. First bonafide guffaw was at this line (paraphrased) “I come to America with few clothings and a jar of Gypsy tears to protect against the AIDS.” For some reason, I […]

I heard about Sin City in conjunction with other films I had been watching so when I saw it on sale at Target I said what the heck. It got generally rave reviews and a two thumb’s up. Plus, I was interested in the translation of the Frank Miller “graphic novel” (comic) into a stylish […]

Are you watching closely?

That’s the magician’s line repeated several times throughout The Prestige which acts as a taunt to the film’s audience as much as it is the invitation to the magician’s audience. You do need to watch closely to follow the tricks of this film. Christopher Nolan’s latest — named after the third part […]

Why is this film called “The Science of Sleep” in English when it’s “La Science des rêves” (The Science of Dreams) in the original French? Is it just for the alliteration? “Sleep” is all wrong, not just for the translation. Our strange but endearing protagonist, Stéphane, is dreaming, not sleeping, throughout the movie. Big difference. […]

The real life story of turn-of-the-twentieth-century martial artists Huo Yuanjia has inspired many renditions in film (usually of a fictional disciple who avenges his death, as seen in Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury), and this is Jet Li’s. But, you don’t go see this for the story (the Great Yellow Hope vs. imperialists in turn-of-the-century […]