Too long; do not read.
Nothing gives you a more bracing sensation of how crazily prolific Seijun Suzuki was during his most fertile period at Nikkatsu than the fact that Tokyo Drifter and Fighting Elegy — two movies that are light-years apart in terms of tone, subject matter, and setting — were both made in the same …
Our next installment of Seijunuary deals with what is likely Seijun Suzuki’s best-known film, not so much because it’s his greatest work, but because, for a lot of his famous fans, it was the first one they ever saw. Tokyo Drifter was one of the earliest Suzuki films to get …
Fuck if I’m going to wait until I’m on my deathbed to let Esquire ask me for valuable life lessons. Here’s some balls-to-ass wisdom from my 46 years, kids — take it to heart and warn me if you mourn me. *** “There is no more precious love in this world than …
I am, to put it mildly, extremely distrustful of reality shows, especially of the competitive variety. Leaving aside the fact that, due to behind-the-scenes staging and manipulation, they rarely qualify as either ‘reality’ or ‘competition’, they also tend to have the nastiest hallmarks of unscripted television: pandering to the lowest …
The second entry in our month of films by eccentric Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki (who, at 92 and beset by health problems, keeps on keeping on and has just recently lensed a documentary and appeared in a new television commercial, a profitable sideline for which he is arguably better known …
Well, the news in this corner of the world — a world that seems less strange and charming without David Bowie in it — is the same as it is all over. He had one last shock in him, and he kept us guessing until the end; I wish like …
Sex crimes are awful things. This should go without saying, but my point is that, beyond being awful on their face, they keep being awful long after they’ve happened; they can leave a victim traumatized for the rest of their lives, not only because of the acts themselves, but because …
With the Gene Siskel center hosting a traveling road show of films by Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, I figured this would be a good month to recap some of his most striking films. And ‘striking’ is the right word. Suzuki has an incredible eye, and while his movies generally are …
Justin Kurzel made his reputation with The Snowtown Murders, a shocking and eerie true-crime film from 2011. Eschewing the usual gore and horror of most serial killer flicks, Snowtown focused on the plight of an abandoned community, whose poverty, isolation, and abandonment by legitimate authority made it easy prey for …
When it comes to the choice between bread and circuses, anyone who has seen me knows that I’ll pick bread every time. Bread is honest. Bread isn’t trying to convince you that it’s anything other than bread. Bread has no agenda. Reality shows, on the other hand, have an agenda, …
Decade: the 1770s Greatest Threat: the English Nature of Threat: British sought to place us back under the thumb of their imperial rule Consequences of Failure: we’d all be speaking English today Victor: America! Decade: the 1780s Greatest Threat: liberals Nature of Threat: Attempts to place too many restrictions on gun ownership and not enough restrictions on free …
With new installments of both Star Wars and Star Trek on the way, it could not be more clear that nerd culture has had its revenge on cinema. Rather than waiting to see either of them — I don’t really care to, since I’ve never been especially interested in either franchise — I …
Hi, everybody! Today we’re going to talk about a certain presidential candidate, and that means we’re going to have to use the f-word. The candidate is Donald Trump, and the word, of course, is “fuckface”. Ha ha! Just kidding! The word is “fascism”, and the candidate is “all of them”. …
Anyone who knows me, has read my writing, or has spent agonizing minutes in my company hearing me gas on and on about television knows that I think Mr. Show with Bob and David represents one of the high points in the history of TV comedy. It was, and still is, …
It must be exciting, being Spike Lee. He started his career over 30 years ago, when you could count the number of prominent black filmmakers on one hand that had been mangled in a threshing mishap, and, in an era that was much more vocally racist than today, he frequently …
