review

Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace Alfred A. Knopf There’s nothing like an occupying army to stir desperation into the chaos of defeat. Just ask Detective Minami, chief of one of the two murder-investigation units operating in Tokyo during “Year Zero” — the first year after Japan’s surrender to and occupation by the United States. […]

directed by Tony Palmer Isolde Films Director Tony Palmer’s examination of the world of rock ’n’ roll in 1968 serves as a fascinating time capsule. Broadcast on the BBC 39 years ago, All My Loving , “a film of pop music,” was not shown in the U.S. and hasn’t been released on DVD until now. […]

by Chag Lowry Self-published In Ken Burns’ new documentary series about World War II, which began airing on PBS Sept. 23, only one Native American voice is included. When the series was first announced last spring, there were none at all. After public protest and a quick reedit, Burns added two Latinos and a token […]

Once again the Criterion Collection has rescued the work of a masterful director from the annals of obscurity. Here they couple two key works by French director/photographer/activist Chris Marker, La Jetée and Sans Soleil , vastly different films that still clearly stem from the same artistic vision. Marker is a notoriously enigmatic figure. He’s never […]

The Summer of Love still casts its patchouli-scented shadow on the Bay Area forty years later, a legend blessed and cursed by old hippies and academics who weren’t even alive at the time. One thing you can’t refute is the Bay Area’s revolutionary impact on the music business. It gave birth to psychedelia, jam bands, […]

For me, getting ready for a queer dance party usually means donning a sleek black outfit and pounding a few beers to get in the zone. This past Sunday started a little differently, however, since I had to skip the pre-drink. (I had ‘partied-a-bit-too-hardily’ the night before. Walking, drunk, down Fickle Hill in the middle […]

The Case For Literature is the title of Gao Xingjian’s address accepting the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, and also of this slim but powerful collection of his essays. Gao achieved his first success in China in the early 1980s with plays, and continued to write for the theatre, as well as fiction and literary […]

These days, when much American independent film has devolved to formulaic low budget romantic comedies, adolescent Tarantino ripoffs and torture porn, it’s hard to believe the promise that a new wave of filmmakers heralded in the ’80s. More than 20 years after its original release, Criterion has just released a remastered version of director Jim […]