Tag Archives: 1999

She and Her Cat

Makoto Shinkai’s first short is a brief, elegiac piece about the way a happy young cat views his apparently troubled master. There are three versions of the short – one at five minutes, one at three minutes, and one at … Continue reading

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8mm

Notable characters Tom Welles (P.I., nominal hero): is an edgy average man; usually speaks in a somnambulant monotone when not overly and self-righteously indignant; smokes behind his wife’s back; went to a good school on an academic scholarship but (wanh … Continue reading

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Magnolia

A rainy-day tapestry of fear, failure, and forgiveness. Really, it’s a pop opera (with a score by Harry Nilsson and Aimee Mann), and the characters don’t know it until they intersect at the hands of the shepherd – or Magnolia … Continue reading

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The Ninth Gate

Books are mental landscapes. They may contain direct representations of external realities (maps, charts, words that describe worlds) but they are, in and of themselves, complete things. The idea that a book takes you someplace else is, to me, a … Continue reading

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Suede – Head Music

Plastic Suede. Even if the British press (and the rest of us) moved on when guitarist Bernard Butler did, Suede has enough sturm und drang to keep on keepin’ on. (Think Anthony Newley by way of the Smiths.) After a … Continue reading

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Charisma

I don’t understand Charisma. The bare facts of the narrative are clear, but damned if it isn’t one of the most befuddling, obscure and confounding movies I’ve seen. Twice now I’ve seen it, and things that were clear are now … Continue reading

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The Nameless

Little known is Ramsey Campbell in the U.S. He’s a great, prolific writer of supernatural horror and dark suspense. But it wasn’t until I saw The Nameless that I saw his depth of character. I didn’t read the book, so … Continue reading

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Tomie

A man carries a plastic bag. Through a tear in the bag, we see a human eye. The eye blinks. The heroine, Tsukiko, hangs with her friends, takes photographs, and gets weird calls from her mom. To try and recover … Continue reading

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