Dune was a disaster in multiple regards, but the contractual obligations David Lynch had for its producer Dino De Laurentiis turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the swirl of ideas within Lynch's head formed into something much more personal and less likely to be savaged by critics and audiences. De Laurentiis agreed to finance the film when no other studio was interested (even starting up his own distribution company just for this release), and gave Lynch two…

I don't really need to write up any elaborate introduction or history lesson on 2001: A Space Odyssey, because there's a very slim chance that you haven't seen this movie, or at least the many references to it and high praise nearly every major directors attributes to it (and if you genuinely haven't seen it, boy are you in for one HELL of a ride). A necessary film for anyone interested in the art, adored by critics as an avant-garde…

The works of manga author Hideo Yamamoto have always been defined by their complete willingness to dive into the human mind's most perverse and eccentric inner thoughts for the sake of compelling character studies, having thus far written about characters undertaking voyeurism, trepanation, or narcissistic homosexual frustration. Ichi the Killer, however, provoked a lot of Yamamoto's readers, reveling in a dark, brutal world of crime bursting with gory actions by twisted characters, leading to some parts of Japan banning the…

For the latter half of the 90's (as well as the year 2000), Gus Van Sant had one foot resting in the world of mainstream filmmaking, making himself a household name with Good Will Hunting and then dismantling that praise with his Psycho remake and, to a lesser extent, Finding Forrester. Having tasted from the well of traditional time-honored studio-approved movies, Van Sant leaped back into the pond of low-budget purely-independent movies that would, this time with a new artistic…

(NOTE: THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ENTIRE SERIES EPISODE-BY-EPISODE. AS SUCH, SPOILERS ARE PRESENT ALL-AROUND. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED).

Few series have had their legacy defined by mystique and complete obliqueness like Serial Experiment Lain, delving into complex themes like the nature of reality, identity, and communication just as the internet’s interconnected stream of information began taking the form it takes today. Forming a trifecta of late 90’s anime mindfucks alongside Neon Genesis Evangelion and Revolutionary Girl Utena, a…

Haven't I been here before?

Where the fuck do I start with this, my--my BRAIN's too wrinkled for this shit, man.

I don't need to do a basic set-up for Tenet because, well, the excited discourse of its promotion was inescapable, and any attempt to spoil it once it came out usually earned people a trip to the firing squad. Rumors floated around that it was going to be Christopher Nolan's six-hour masterpiece even though 70mm IMAX prints barely run…