REVIEW: Belle de jour [1967]

French language director Luis Buñuel is a master at cinematic surrealism. After seeing his masterpiece Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie in film history class during college, I had been intrigued to seek out and see more from him. So, when the Sundance Channel recently aired Belle de jour I took the plunge. While at first glance it seems we have a straightforward narrative, it all soon unravels. The first glimpse of our main character, Séverine, occurs during a masochistic nightmare (or maybe welcome dream as we might later discern)…

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REVIEW: Cars [2006]

I’m not quite sure why people are speaking of Cars as the worst Pixar movie to date, as being the one that had nothing original to bring to the table. I must totally disagree as I found the film to be highly enjoyable. Besides an overly sappy “better-days” flashback scored to a James Taylor led song, the film was funny, smart, and amazing to behold graphically. The animation is the best Pixar and Disney has done. Reflections, glares, textures, and materials are as real as possible. Some overhead shots of…

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