The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum: Completed more than a decade before the string of masterpieces for which he’s most known, Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Criterion, $27.99 Blu-ray, $22.99 DVD) is a startlingly modern meditation on the give and take between art and life. Forecasting by at least two years the technical innovations of Orson Welles, this … [Read more...]
‘Sully’ hymns the hero of the Hudson landing
One definition of a good director is his ability to wrench blood, sweat and tears from scenarios that should be free of suspense. Every American knows about Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” but this cinematic disadvantage makes its dramatic re-enactment, in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, no less palpable. It’s a nerve-rattling, heart-in-throat depiction of … [Read more...]