Category Archives: Movies

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A comedy of foreplay

Posted on June 13, 2023 by kaist455

Stanley Kubrick’s last film “Eyes Wide Shut” is one naughty comedy of foreplay. Along the story, its plain ordinary hero is tempted by a series of tantalizing possibilities of sexual pleasure and transgression popping up here and there around him, … Continue reading →

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Magnolia (1999) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): One Day in the Valley

Posted on June 12, 2023 by kaist455

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” still knocks me down although it has been almost 25 years since it came out in 1999. Masterfully and electrifyingly juggling many different narratives unfolded in the San Fernando Valley, California during one particularly eventful day, … Continue reading →

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Gleason (2016) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): His life with ALS

Posted on June 6, 2023 by kaist455

Amazon Prime documentary film “Gleason” gives us an honest and intimate look into one former professional athlete’s daily life with his serious illness and the following complications. While never overlooking all those difficulties and frustrations experienced by him and several … Continue reading →

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Better than most of its predecessors

Posted on June 6, 2023 by kaist455

I still remember how much I winced and cringed as enduring what followed after Michael Bay’s “Transformers” (2007). While the first film was fairly watchable, all of the next four sequels were utterly atrocious in many aspects thanks to Bay’s … Continue reading →

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Wolf (2021) ☆☆(2/4): A murky and confused psychological drama

Posted on June 6, 2023 by kaist455

It is really hard for us to discern what kind of point “Wolf” is actually trying to make. Mainly in set in a special psychiatric facility for mental patients who think they are animals trapped inside human body, the movie … Continue reading →

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The Ivory Game (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): Save elephants

Posted on June 5, 2023 by kaist455

You may be a little relieved after watching Netflix documentary film “The Ivory Game”. Yes, it is really alarming to see how thousands of elephants in Africa were brutally slaughtered just because of their precious ivory tusks during last several … Continue reading →

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Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017) ☆☆☆(3/4): A vivid chronicle of the Umbrella Revolution

Posted on June 5, 2023 by kaist455

I could not help but feel a bit depressed as belatedly checking out Netflix documentary film “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower”, which closely follows Joshua Wong and what he actively led along with many young people in Hong Kong during 2012-2016, … Continue reading →

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Confess, Fletch (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Fletch returns…

Posted on June 5, 2023 by kaist455

Gregory Mcdonald’s “Fletch” was one of numerous pulpy stuffs I gladly devoured during my wild and crazy childhood years in the 1990s. It is too bad that any of McDonald’s following sequel novels was not translated in South Korea, but … Continue reading →

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Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): On his fiery artistry

Posted on June 4, 2023 by kaist455

Netflix documentary film “Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang” will engage and then amaze you even if you are not that familiar with the artistic career of renowned Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang (Full disclosure: Neither am I). Here is … Continue reading →

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Citizen Pane (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Six little satires both painfully and realistically funny

Posted on June 4, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean omnibus film “Citizen Pane” presents six little satires painfully and realistically funny in each own way. All of them surely have something to say about the current social issues of the South Korean society, and I must tell … Continue reading →

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