“Believe it or not, Eraserhead is my most spiritual film.” – David Lynch In heaven everything is fine Defensibly David Lynch’s most forcible film, Eraserhead was the curious realization of more than five years of spasmodic shooting and postproduction assembly. Captured in furtive black-and-white, pushing arresting chiaroscuro lighting, and occupying a post-industrial wasteland backdrop, […]
Reviews
Pulling Focus: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
“I think along with the rest of the English nation that [Life of Brian] is the best Python film… It’s the only film we ever made that was proximately a good story. It’s also about things that are very important.” – John Cleese “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!” It’s rather […]
Pulling Focus: Akira (1988)
“An impressive achievement, often suggesting a weird expressionist blend of 2001, The Warriors, Blade Runner and Forbidden Planet… [Akira] is a towering achievement of imagination and the detail of each frame is a miracle of film artistry.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out Come, Armageddon! Come! An uncontested landmark of animation, Katsuhiro Ōtomo’s classic Akira […]
Pulling Focus: Spirited Away (2001)
“Miyazaki has been crafting films more lusciously illustrated and rapturously imaginative than almost anything else on the silver screen.” – Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine Come sail away Most assuredly there is no one else making animated films like auteur-director Hayao Miyazaki. Born in Tokyo in 1941, the personal universe he presents onscreen is absolutely […]
Pulling Focus: A History of Violence (2005)
“[David Cronenberg] has been, film for film, the most audacious and challenging director in the English-speaking world.” – J. Hoberman Murder ballads Toronto, Canada’s most incendiary favorite son, director David Cronenberg’s name is synonymous with a cinematic subgenre he essentially created––”body horror.” And certainly his deft psychological thriller from 2005, A History of Violence, […]
Pulling Focus: Brazil (1985)
“[Brazil] is a film that bears watching again and again and again. It’s so packed with detail, it’s funny and so political. It’s just a perfect film I think.” – Ben Wheatley, director (Kill List, Free Fire) Somewhere in the twentieth century For American-born British filmmaker, animator, and comedian Terry Gilliam, the 1985 dystopian […]