Author: Nathanael Hood

The Ornithologist Is an Allegorical Failure

The Ornithologist Is an Allegorical Failure

Posted by | Oct 17, 2016 | |

Overview: After getting stranded in the wilderness following a kayaking accident, an ornithologist named Fernando experiences a series of bizarre, mystical encounters that lead to his religious awakening. Seeking Distributor; 2016; Not Rated; 117 minutes. Sure, Why Not?: About thirty minutes into João Pedro Rodrigues’s The Ornithologist, I threw up my hands and stopped trying to make sense of what was going on. I decided that from there on out I would greet whatever happened with a resigned “sure, why not?” A duo of Chinese pilgrims seeking the shrine of Saint Anthony of Padua capture and hogtie the titular...

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Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four

Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four

Posted by | Oct 14, 2016 | |

Overview: An exhaustive examination of the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the conception, production, and sudden shelving of Oley Sassone’ low-budget cinematic adaptation of Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four. Uncork’d Entertainment; 2015; Not Rated; 85 minutes. Setting the Record Straight: The ultimate irony of Oley Sassone’s The Fantastic Four (1994) is that the older it gets, the more it holds up. The landscape of modern superhero films can be broken down into two camps. On one side are grimdark DC Comics adaptations obsessed with dully deconstructing the very concept of superheroes, all the while bravely ignoring fan outrage, critical hatred, and...

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The Vessel is an Achingly Beautiful Portrait of Religious Community

The Vessel is an Achingly Beautiful Portrait of Religious Community

Posted by | Sep 16, 2016 | |

Overview: After a near death experience, a unwilling young man becomes venerated as a living saint by a community savaged ten years earlier by a tsunami which killed 46 children. Outsider Pictures; 2016; Rated PG-13; 86 minutes. Paralytic Grief and Miracles: The small seaside village in Julio Quintana’s The Vessel refuses to move on. Ten years after a tidal wave destroyed the elementary school, killing all of the community’s children, the women still wear black. An unspoken rule binds them together: whoever breaks ranks first and wears a different color will be labeled the worst mother of the bunch....

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Criterion Discovery: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

Criterion Discovery: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

Posted by | Sep 14, 2016 | |

Background The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Spine #832) is one of the earliest triumphs of legendary Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi. It’s his fourth film in the main collection, his eighth overall: Ugetsu (Spine #309), Sansho the Bailiff (Spine #386), The Life of Oharu (Spine #664); Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, Women of the Night, Street of Shame (Eclipse Series 13: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Fallen Women). Story Set in Meiji era Japan, the film follows the doomed love between Kikunosuke Onoe (Shôtarô Hanayagi), the spoiled adopted son of a famous Tokyo Kabuki actor, and Otoku (Kakuko Mori), his father’s...

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