The Big Picture Magazine
At the age of 26, the Japanese actor and model Yusuke Iseya made his directorial debut: Kakuto (2002), produced by Hirokazu Kore-Eda, in whose films After Life (Wandafaru raifu, 1998) and Distance (2001) Iseya had previously been cast. He stars in Kakuto, and he also wrote the script together with Takamasa Kameishi. The title “kakuto” […]
In Happiness (1998), the ever-smiling Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), in her neat kitchen, is strongly reminiscent of the female ideal as propagated in American films and commercials of the 1950s and 1960s. However, her affected demeanour und put-on optimism cannot hide the illusion behind the image of the idyllic home that is associated with the American […]
Writer-director Louis Malle’s filmography is nothing short of eclectic; over the course of his decades-long career, he tackled war dramas, screwball comedies, coming-of-age chronicles, an assortment of international documentaries, and even a landmark film noir. Yet, even considered within this vast oeuvre, Black Moon (1975) stands out as a singular, unparalleled dream of a film. […]
Youth, the nascent and ephemeral period situated precariously between the poles of adolescence and adulthood, is the thematic heart of the coming-of-age subgenre within the familiar dramedy narrative. These narratives are typified by the ‘everyman’ protagonist finding themselves trapped within the paradoxical malaise of youth; no longer a child but not yet an adult. This […]
Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s The Way, Way Back is a typical teen movie in so many ways. It captures that feeling of taking a holiday from teenage angst – a holiday with the promise of being whoever you want to be for a short period of time. In a way, however, the film feels […]
A young man, head shaved, the tattoo of a swastika on his forehead, stands up abruptly and moves towards the camera as if smashing into the viewer’s face. This opening shot announces the high tension which characterises Alan Clarke’s Made in Britain, a production for Central Television. The actor’s aggressive body language is sustained by […]