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[Also see discussion in “Entry from July 27, 2011” under “My Diary”] I liked After Life by Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose previous film was Maborosi. It is a witty contribution to the genre that includes Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Stairway to Heaven and so forth, but it gives the bureaucracy of death a peculiarly Japanese look….

An amusing and occasionally wise and witty film from Patrice Leconte, but one whose principal virtue is its leading man

A pretty routine bit of Hollywood uplift in the sporting context which isn’t quite sure about what it really believes

When the Cat’s Away (not a very adequate translation of the French Chacun Cherche Son Chat or “Everyone’s looking for his cat”), by Cédric Klapisch, is a charmingly old-fashioned kind of film, in spite of its depiction of very contemporary social realities. It offers a marvelously undimmed romanticism about Paris, and about the glamour of…

A dark, European take on the classic Hollywood version of the myth of the American frontier, but set in contemporary Denmark

The sad story of Kurt Gerron, a great Jewish talent from pre-war Germany whose memory is entirely overshadowed by his brief collaboration with the Nazis