Review Roundup - Shock Waves

OPPENHEIMER (2023)

Christopher Nolan's latest venture into science and history is a heady mixture. A disturbing blend in which the retelling of real life events collides with a character study of a complicated man. It's also a self indulgent three hour biopic that covers perhaps more court room drama than world changing physics experiments and atomic weapons. The sometimes relentless music, the occasionally stilted dialogue, and the perhaps misjudged time shifting narrative are all hallmarks of the director at this stage. But does it succeed in reaching emotional criticality or is it a non-starter? Is it more like the mechanical precision of Dunkirk or more of the confused ramblings of Tenet? It's a tough one to digest to say the least, with some extreme highs and a few low points along the way.

Review Roundup - Silver Machine

SHIN ULTRAMAN (2022)

The world of Japanese special-effects cinema and television, or the 'Tokusatu' genre if you prefer, is a vast decades long phenomenon. Dipping into any of this is far more intimidating than the mere twenty-something movies in the Godzilla franchise. Beyond the realm of mainstream Western entertainment exists a world of transforming heroes that spans dozens of shows, of which only a tiny fraction were adapted by Saban in the 1990s. Though this kind of chop-and-swap effort to appeal to English speaking children was successful at the time, the original versions were more than a passing fad in their country of origin. With so much history how can a single film hope to capture what made it work so well? Let's take a look at two of the latest iterations to see what the makers of Shin Godzilla have to offer.

Monster Bites - The Tomb

YOKAI MONSTERS: SPOOK WARFARE (1968)

For those who were underwhelmed (or misled) by the previous entry in this series, Yokai: 100 Monsters, this will probably be more to your expectations. I feel each delivers a similar quality folk tale based movie but both are different experiences. So while this one is often bloody, and perhaps even has a higher body count, the overall tone is lighter and focuses more on creatures instead of feudal disputes. There still aren't one hundred monsters mind you; but they get more do to as an odd ensemble of mostly non-violent spirits. Some of the same ghoulish designs are re-used but they don't curse anyone or drive them to madness this time around. Which isn't to say that the story lacks bite.

Scorecard

JUNE

FILM OF THE MONTH: Sanjuro ☆☆☆☆