To call Nicolas Cage's performance in Vampire's Kiss "bad" is missing the point. Cage is not bad in this. He is uncorked with all his Cageness spewing all over the set. He's a total lunatic. Pulling wild faces, spinning into fits of unpredictable rage, pointing, screaming, running, jumping on desks, carrying around planks of wood, chattering fake vampire teeth in his ridiculous mouth. A mere description of Cage's performance could never do it justice. It is one of the greatest,…
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The Boxer's Omen 1983
The Boxer's Omen is pure madness on celluloid! I can't thank Chris Purdie enough for recommending this to me. This is everything I could ever want in a film. Here is a paragraph of some things you'll see in The Boxer's Omen because my brain can't construct proper sentences at the moment...
Violent kickboxing. Bolo Yeung's disproportioned body. Buddhist monks fighting demons. Spiders (that make the spiders from The Beyond look awesome) drinking liquid poison from tiny straws. Conversations with…
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Ring 1995
Much like Rasen, it is a mindfuck watching this. Rasen is a mindfuck because it creates a timeline that was deleted from history, 1995's Ringu is a mindfuck because it is Ringu only not the Ringu we know and love. It is a trip seeing classic scenes presented in an utterly different fashion, stripped of their iconic imagery and run through a hazy videotape. The centrepiece VHS viewing scene is wildly, wildly different, yet fascinating in its own way. It's…
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Dragon Head 2003
I had no idea what Dragon Head was before putting it on, and, even an hour in, I still wasn't quite sure. One thing that is clear, though on paper this may seem like a typical end-of-the-world disaster film, it really isn't. I really love how willing to get weird this film is. From lobotomised children unceremoniously looking at their parents' dead bodies to a young Takayuki Yamada covering himself with warpaint made from the blood of disaster victims, Dragon…
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters 1985
Since moving to Japan, I've discovered that Yukio Mishima is still, to this day, a sore subject. In casual conversation about Japanese authors or in the classroom, the moment I mention Mishima an uncomfortable silence settles over the room. I've learnt not to mention my love of Spring Snow and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. I get the tension. Mishima was a brilliant writer, but an unbelievably problematic person. Politically, he stands against everything I believe…
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Beavis and Butt-Head Do America 1996
If I had to show someone the 1990s in movie form, it would be Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. It's all here: television addiction, guffawing teenage apathy, nonsensical toilet humour, grim satire, Jerry Springer-esque sleaze, a very MTV trip out sequence, and Chelsea Clinton. This is one of the few movies that — much like its titular characters — I laugh almost constantly throughout. I love that the film's protagonists have no idea about the actual plot of the movie…
