A "visuals aren't everything" twofer: Platonic Chain: If you can get past the primitive CG animation, this short form series from 2002 is actually a mildly interesting snapshot of its time, as it tries to imagine what a near-future society with all-pervasive social media might look like. I...

Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., Grandson of the 10th US President. Yes, you read that right.

Every Day (2018):
We will be better off as a society if we just collectively agree that this was the western Your Name remake. It came and went, it's out of the system now, and nothing else needs to be done with it.

Wagons East (1994): Inside this mostly unfunny nineties western comedy (that killed John Candy) is an absolutely pitch-dark wokesploitation comedy that wants out. This should be remade. John C. McGinley steals the show as a gay stereotype so over the top it's actually amazing. Happy Valentine's day...

Weathering With You: What to even think of this? I got simultaneously three totally different readings out of this film, and I find none of them really satisfying. 1. The charitable reading: Shinkai Black Label Hello, Internet, welcome to Film Theory. Imagine you're Makoto Shinkai, a famous one...

Flyboys (2006): James Franco stars in a hokey Shonen Jump version of WW1. I think he's got too contemporary of a face for the role, but the film was a lot of fun. Bonus points for a very literal application of Chekhov's gun. Body of Water (2011): Does this count as deconstructing folk horror? I'...

Blockers: John Cena is such a great comedy actor.

Is that the one about magic crystals or something? I get confused on the movies...I know there's a showdown in a cemetery, but I haven't seen them in a LONG time The cemetery fight is in the first film, and the magic crystals are in the sequel, Warlock II: The Armageddon , which I just watched. Its...

Warlock (1989): Babby's first satanic movie, in the best possible way. I remember how this thing blew my mind when I was 12 or so, and it still holds up. Likable, in many places genuinely well-written cheese.

Future Robo Daltanious: https://i.imgur.com/9UdRID2.jpg Tadao Nagahama's Robot Romance Trilogy, of which Daltanious is the fourth unofficial part, is known for being somewhat proto real robot in tone, in that it combines classic meat-and-potatoes super robot action with surprisingly hefty sociopoli...

Some western anime news: Alamo Drafthouse starts a new series of theatrical anime screenings.

Hot take maybe, but I think what contributed to KotM's lukewarm reception was that it kinda fails as a visual spectacle, and this is coming from someone who really wanted to like the movie. I liked many of the thematic things it does, I liked the music, and for what I've heard, the director seems to...

Gyrozetter episode 1: https://i.imgur.com/iaiJHc9.jpg Have you ever watched one of those Tony Seba transportation lectures and thought to yourself "this is pretty cool, but it would be even cooler as a shounen battle anime"? Because if you have, Gyrozetter has you covered. Back in 2012, t...

Something that's different from last year: I live in the northern armpit of the EU, but even here a steady trickle of electric vehicles has started to appear: Kias, Hyundais, Toyota hybrids, Nissan vans, BMW i3s, and yes, some Teslas as well. It's heartening to see, considering how few models are st...

Coyote Ragtime Show The name may be evocative of Cowboy Bebop , but this series is more like a Chinese bootleg of Outlaw Star . In a distant future humans have colonized the galaxy and powerful mafia families rule the roost, which is probably for the best, considering how both inept and psychotic t...

Tokyo ESP (A.K.A. Hajime Segawa's X-Men) Tokyo ESP was Segawa's big follow-up to Ga-Rei , and actually started its serialization while the latter was still ongoing and nearing its finale. Considering this continuous transition, it's pretty amazing how markedly better the character art in Tokyo ESP ...

Dancouga: Blazing Epilogue Not the abject horror show I was led to expect, considering how this four-episode shortie was for the longest time avoided by classic mecha fansubbers; it's just this completely unneeded thing. Shapiro is back, and gets to do very, very little. Not the correct way to use ...