“For those suffering from the same dissatisfactions depicted in ‘Touki Bouki’ and ‘Taipei Story’ — be they based on economics, vocation, familial and romantic relations or a broad national uncertainty — hope may be all there is. And that, at least, is something.”
“At its seemingly lugubrious heart, ‘Return to Oz’ is an ode to imagination; a celebration of the weird and wonderful worlds of our own making, in which we find sanctuary and satisfaction.”
“‘Year of the Dragon’ offers little comfort, and when it does, Cimino heavily suggests its victories are hollow and insincere. It is a dark-mirror exercise in genre fragmentation that shatters the vigilante cop thriller into thousands of pieces and lays its ugliest instincts frighteningly bare.”
“Looking back at a film like ‘Rocky IV,’ we can’t just say ‘wow, look how dumb we were back then’ because the simple truth is that we haven’t earned the right. We are still making the same mistakes, still falling for the same macho con.”
“While ‘Punk Shadows’ may not evoke the well-worn clichés of mohawks and safety pins, it does offer listeners a bracing dose of originality in the form of nine wildly eclectic tunes.”
“If ‘Tampopo’ initially seems familiar, it’s only because Itami masks the exterior as a Western.”
“People often fear or misrepresent what they don’t understand.”