Departures [2008] – ★★★★1/2 Departures is the Japanese winner of the 2009 Academy Award in the category of the Best Foreign Language Picture. Loosely based on a memoir by Shinmon Aoki titled Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician, it tells the story of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), an ex-cellist who comes to his home…
Tag: Best Picture
“The Shape of Water” Review
The Shape of Water [2017] – ★★★★1/2 “Words lie, but looks don’t…When you fall in love, you fall in love, absolutely, all at once, all-in. It’s a miracle” (Guillermo del Toro). “Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love, It humbles…
“Hacksaw Ridge” Review
Hacksaw Ridge [2016] – ★★★★1/2 An inspiring story about an unconventional hero? A graphic tale of the brutality of a war? A touching and believable love story? Mel Gibson can do it all, and brilliantly. His latest film Hacksaw Ridge tells the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a kind, deeply-religious young man who…
Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” Review
Rebecca [1940] – ★★★★1/2 “…I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end” (Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca (1938)). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Rebecca is adapted from the best-selling novel…
“The Lost Weekend” Review
The Lost Weekend [1945] – ★★★★★ “One drink’s too many, and a hundred’s not enough.” The Lost Weekend is a 1945 film directed by Billy Wilder, and telling a story of a failed writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) who struggles to combat his chronic alcohol addiction in the course of a weekend. The winner of…
“12 Years a Slave” Review
12 Years a Slave [2013] – ★★★★★ Coming from Steve McQueen (director of Shame (2011)), 12 Years a Slave can now be comfortably described as this year’s cinematic sensation. The film, based on a self-autobiographical novel by Solomon Northup, tells the story of a black free man, who lives a happy family life in Saratoga, New York…
“The Departed” Review
The Departed [2006] – ★★★★★ “When I was your age, they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?” (Frank Costello) Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller The Departed, winner of an Academy Award…
Spotlight on Film 