Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#27 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. It's an interesting irony that the last film of Kurosawa's long career is titled Not Yet. He was a man who didn't see an end for his career just yet, but an accident left him lame in his final months, preventing him from working on another film… Continue reading Madadayo
#26 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. The third of Kurosawa's three works that dealt directly with the atomic bombing of Japan and its aftermath, Rhapsody in August is a flawed but worthwhile penultimate film from one of the masters of the craft. There's a deep well of emotion hiding in the film for… Continue reading Rhapsody in August
#15 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. This might be the most interesting autobiographical films I've seen, and that is in no small part because it's not strictly autobiographical. A collection of dreams, obviously, that Kurosawa supposedly has had throughout his life, touching on real places and people he knew, it seems to show… Continue reading Dreams
There were stretches of this where I was wondering if the film had been intended satirically. I'm talking about laugh out loud moments of hilarity that never once winks at the audience, everything supposedly meant to be taken super-seriously. There are just so many weird choices throughout, from narrative, to structural, to musical, and to… Continue reading Omen IV: The Awakening
#10 in my ranking of Mel Brooks' filmography. Mel Brooks' final film is more of a piece with Robin Hood: Men in Tights than Young Frankenstein, which isn't really a surprise how artist careers go. However, it is simply less funny for long stretches of its runtime, feeling like Brooks and his writing team of… Continue reading Dracula: Dead and Loving It
David Vining, Author 