Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942)

[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….

After 50 years, the re-make of a classic western provides us with a pretty accurate gauge of the degree to which the culture has been debased since 1957

The new nukes-on-the-loose action thriller, The Peacemaker, tells us in its opening credits that it was directed by Mimi Leder, but as the first and presumably showcase cinematic product of the Spielberg-Katzenberg-Geffen “Dreamworks” studio, it has all the earmarks of a Spielbergian extravaganza. There are advantages and disadvantages to the fact. Or, really, one advantage…

A Norwegian film whose amusing qualities are the spoonful of sugar that helps the message-medicine go down

An often funny but basically incoherent satire on the stupidity of contemporary culture by the director of Office Space

This is the abstract field.