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And don’t forget the chimp, the gimp, and the swarms of six-legged creatures. Jennifer Connelly stars as Jennifer, an American at a creepy European boarding school (see Suspiria). She’s pretty and rich, but lonely. Her parents have abandoned her and she’s WAY too friendly with bugs.  What’s a girl to do? Why become friends with a slightly creepy entomologist dude, that’s what. I’m sure she only had an eye for his bags and for his cute assistant, a chimpanzee. Something that is now a thing, I’m sure. Like many Argento flicks, there are decapitations and attempted decapitations. Also lots of blood and broken glass. And mirrors. And useless cops. An excellent follow-up to Suspiria which I’d like to talk about in the future.

This film happened to express some recent thoughts I’ve been having regarding sin and the nature of forgiveness as well as regarding the possibility of an idyllic small town life. The smaller the number of variables, the more chance of effecting a utopian ideal you might think. The same weaknesses exist everywhere and in all of us. I don’t make Grace’s mistakes as much anymore. I’m not out to change the world or martyr myself for the greater good. I just do what I can with what I have and try not to be a rat’s ass (see quote from last post). The way the movie is filmed is fascinating. Even though it’s stafe-like, you’d still have to shoot it on film for it to work. Brilliant. Dogville is like America seen through the eyes of the brilliant Shirley Jackson. Anyway, the format of my commentaries is still in flux. I hope it’s not too incoherent.

I'm trying out a new format for talking about movies. It's a work in progress. I actually want to do more illustration and the sketch of Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't do her any justice. Once I turned on this movie, I wanted to look into Susan Tyrrell as she always plays highly-interesting broken characters. I plan to rewatch her in Angel (1984) sometime soon. She has a great quote on IMDB : I'm a loner. I don't like beautiful people, but I find beauty in the grotesque. And in the sweet soul inside someone who has been able to get through their life without being a rat's ass. I love all the connections that I listed up here. Hauer is one of my absolute favorite actors and I can't believe I waited so long to see him in this. Or maybe I saw the casting and ran far away, cuz this is some bizarre casting! Verhoeven is a very interesting director as in he's not afraid to do things differently. He apparently experimented while making this film and...

I know tons of people who outright hate horror movies and tons of those who dismiss them or never bother watching them. Well "Housebound" (2014) now on Netflix is one of those movies that shouldn't be dismissed.  My advice is to stop reading this now - especially if you're the kind of person that easily discovers spoilers in non-spoiler reviews - and just go watch this work of art. But if you still need convincing, read on.  Besides having some real creepy scares and a bit of "in your face" blood & gore (just a bit) this flick has a great story, a perfect plot, wonderful characters - including the main character - a hard case juvie that's given up on the world, a security guy who's a part-time paranormal investigator, and especially - well, I don't want to give away anything. Let's just say that every character has some great moments that make you smile, laugh out loud, or even cry - yes, cry! Okay. Now quickly go rent or buy your copy of...

The movie "Rolling Thunder" is one of those gems that you just don't hear about. At least I hadn't heard of it until my good buddy J.R. brought it over for us to watch.  William Devane was perfect as the man who survived being a POW in Vietnam and is trying his god-damnedest to make it back in "the world". His wife has moved on and he doesn't really know how to relate to her anymore anyway. Tommy Lee Jones' character came back from captivity with him and he also has no idea how to lead a normal life. His wife and family are trying really hard to be loving and happy and are also trying to pretend that nothing is wrong. They are both completely numb, but go through the motions without complaint.  It takes murder, torture, and mutilation to push these men into action, but once the action is needed, they both slide so easily into combat mode that you can actually see the relief on their faces that they are going into life-threatening battle rather than h...

Hello, Nipponophiles!    Yes, that's what they used to call us back in the day. Which "day" are you talking about, you might ask. I'm talking about when anime fans were such a minority that Prisoner fans used to give us a hard time. Nowadays, most Japan-o-fans are happy to be called "otaku". Well here on ARTokyo, I've decided to talk about what it was like to be an old-school otaku. Well, I used to be old-school, but now I'm just old. I guess that makes me an "ota-oji", as in "oji-san" as in old dude.   Now this old dude is gonna tell you about a favorite manga of mine by Masashi Tanaka. Learn all about him in this informative wiki article . Tanaka is best known for GON , a comic masterpiece about a little dinosaur, which was one of the first manga to successfully crossover to the Western world if only because it didn't need any translation. There were no words! Console gamers might know Gon from his appearance in Tekken 3,...