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Giovanni Fazio

Giovanni Fazio has been The Japan Times' resident film crank since 1993. When not at the movies, he is busy recording and playing live with his band Makyo and running the independent electronica label Dakini Records.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 7, 2011

'Taking Woodstock'

History has a sly way of happening when you least expect it. For example: A one-time dealer and savvy concert promoter teams up with a hip record-company exec to hold a music and arts festival in a rural setting, showcasing a few of the year's better bands. The promoters expect attendance of around 200,000,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 31, 2010

2010 top movies: 2-D vs. 3-D, actors vs. avatars

Even though it was released at the tail end of 2009, it was clearly "Avatar" that defined cinema in 2010. While this critic was lukewarm about it — "Dances With Wolves" in space, basically — plenty of nongeeky people I know truly loved it, so I've begun to reconsider my stance. One convincing...

CULTURE / Film

Dec 24, 2010

'Tron: Legacy'/'Mikokai Eigasai'

"Tron: Legacy" is one of those movies that makes you stop and seriously wonder whether there isn't some kind of Stupid Test you have to pass in order to be allowed to work at a studio these days.

CULTURE / Film

Dec 17, 2010

'Burlesque'/'Desert Flower'

Who knew that the movie-going public was simply dying for a remake of "Showgirls," the 1995 disaster that nearly sank Paul Verhoeven's career? Well, canny souls obviously studied that much- ridiculed film's long-term success in the rental market, where it grossed over $100 million, and along comes...

CULTURE / Film

Dec 10, 2010

A couple of geeky high-school boys are hanging out discussing their favorite comic-book superheroes. One of them wonders out loud why no one has actually ever tried being a superhero; think about it, he says, thousands of people want to be Paris Hilton but nobody wants to be Spider-Man. His friend replies,...

CULTURE / Film

Dec 3, 2010

'Whatever Works (Jinsei Banzai!)'

If I were to tell you that Woody Allen's new film, "Whatever Works" (opening locally as "Jinsei Banzai!"), involves a nubile, rather dim young girl falling for a cantankerous, neurotic, much older guy, your reaction might be: "Not again!"

CULTURE / Film

Nov 26, 2010

'The White Ribbon'

As a critic, there's a very particular kind of mid-life crisis that creeps up on you: One day you wake up in a cold sweat and realize that despite having been inspired to write about cinema by such masters as Hitchcock, Truffaut, Scorsese, Kurosawa, Kubrick, et al., you now spend most of your time watching...

CULTURE / Film

Nov 19, 2010

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'

Somewhere, deep in the offices of Warner Bros., one can faintly hear the sound of gnashing teeth and torn hair; something equivalent to postpartum depression is setting in as the "Harry Potter" franchise nears its final chapter. The series has been an incredible cash cow for Warner, with a reported $5.4...

CULTURE / Film

Nov 12, 2010

Director Lou Ye continues to prove he's one of the more daring directors working in China today with his latest, "Spring Fever." Or perhaps I should say, one of the more daring directors not working in China today, for Lou was placed on the government censors' blacklist in 2006 after his last film, "Summer...

CULTURE / Film

Nov 5, 2010

It's not a song you'll find on many of The Beatles' best-of compilations, but if you wade deep into the "White Album" of 1968, there at the end of side 2, you'll find a soft, beautifully pensive acoustic number sung by John Lennon entitled "Julia."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 29, 2010

DiCillo opens the doors

Tom DiCillo is a stubbornly independent director whose career began as a cameraman on Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984). With films like "Johnny Suede" (1991) and "Living In Oblivion" (1995), DiCillo worked with such rising stars as Brad Pitt, Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener. Curiously...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 29, 2010

'When You're Strange'

Do The Doors still matter in 2010? That's the unstated question posed to anyone watching "When You're Strange," a new documentary that tracks the band's short and tumultuous career in the 1960s.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 22, 2010

'Son of Rambow'

"Son of Rambow" is one of those very British comedies, in the tradition of "The Full Monty" or "Calendar Girls," in which the not-so-promising group of amateurs rally and put on the big show. In this case, it's a pair of 10-year-old boys in rural Hertfordshire circa 1982 — misfit Will Proudfoot...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 15, 2010

'The Vintner's Luck'/'Bitch Slap'

New Zealand director Niki Caro made a name for herself with 2002's "Whale Rider," a canny mix of Maori myths and naturalistic performances, driven by a gifted young actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was only 12 years old at the time. After going Hollywood with the sexual-harassment lawsuit drama "North...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 8, 2010

'The Expendables'

After reviving both the "Rambo" and "Rocky" franchises in the past few years, you might have thought that Sylvester Stallone had gone as far as he could coasting on his 1980s glory days.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 1, 2010

A lot of times you'll see movies that a look a lot like all too many other movies you've seen before. Odd-couple buddy cops, one last heist, boy meets girl who hates him at first, the "chosen one" heroic quest, band of dysfunctional misfits who learn to pull together and triumph . . .

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 24, 2010

'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'

A few months back I was at a screening when the first preview for this fall's big animated fantasy, "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," was shown. With its portentous baritone narration ("Legend tells of a band of warriors . . . "), heroic attempts to lip-synch bird beaks to human dialogue,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 17, 2010

'Benda Bilili!'

"Welcome to the desert of the real," says Morpheus as Neo awakens in a postapocalyptic landscape in "The Matrix." But he could just as well be describing the state of music nowadays. The "real" in music has indeed become like a desert, depopulated and featureless as far as the eye can see.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 10, 2010

'Zero: An Investigation of 9/11'/'Micmacs'

Nine years on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, doubts persist as to the true nature of what took place on that fateful day in September. While there's no shortage of conspiracy theories on just about anything these days — Colorado gubernatorial candidate...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 3, 2010

'Trouble in Hollywood (What Just Happened?)'

Hollywood is such a duplicitous, back-stabbing, narcissistic pit of weasels and vipers that making a satire about it should be no more difficult than, say, getting a gram of cocaine delivered to a 90210 address at four in the morning. And yet the conundrum is this: If you really tell it like it is, you...

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

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