Tag Archives: Fiction

Fantasy as Poetry, Fiction as Metaphor in Shinkai’s YOUR NAME

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

Your Name is a heartfelt, modern love story with an intricately layered narrative spanning philosophy, mythology, romance, and teenage fantasy within a science fiction melodrama. It is a brilliant feature anime, and the best I have seen since Takahata’s The … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged angels, Anime, anime film, body switching, Consciousness, Dream, energy, Fantasy, Fiction, genre-defying, grave of the fireflies, japan, japanese, japanese film, Love, melodrama, mitsuhi, mythology, nature, new wave, philosophy, Poetry, Romance, self realization, shared lives, shinkai, spirited away, Spirits, spiritual, takahata, taki, tale of the princess kaguya, Time Travel, tradition, Tragedy, Truth, wim wenders, wings of desire, your name | Leave a comment

Pompeii (Anderson, 2014)

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

Paul W.S. Anderson’s Pompeii (2014) blew me away. Judging the trailer and posters, one does not expect a masterful film, nor even a reasonably good film. 3D, CGI, and romantic melodrama rarely appeal to higher artistic sensibilities, and I for … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 3D, affective images, Art, auteurism, author, bordwell, cgi, commercial, commercialism, criticism, Fantasy, Fiction, film perspective, gladiator, godard, high-art, hitchcock, hyperbolisation, ideology, imagination, inappropriate, john ford, kiefer sutherland, kit harrington, low-art, low-brow, masterpiece, paul w.s. anderson, perception, period film, pompeii, post cinematic affect, realism, rivette, rohmer, roman, showgirls, social imbrication, steven shapiro, superficial, truffaut, unique, verhoeven, vulgar, vulgar auteurism | Leave a comment

Taxi (Panahi, 2015)

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Panahi’s most aesthetically pure and visually provocative film, chalk full of self-reference, cultural exposition, and homage to cinema. The Kiarostami-esque close up of a rose, eastern string instrumentation in the soundtrack, and long tracking takes from the taxi’s interior render … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged arrest, cab, censor, censorship, cinema, consent, culture, Documentary, Fiction, homage, Iran, jafar panahi, kiarostami, middle east, panahi, persian, philosophy, reality, taxi | Leave a comment

Pan’s Labyrinth (Del Toro, 2006)

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Watched it last night, and it affected me more or less as it did the first time. The colours and special effects are glorious. The film is aMAZEing.. 😛 Okay, dad jokes aside, it’s pretty darn excellent, and Del Toro’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged civil war, Darkness, del toro, dreams, fairie, fairy tale, Fantasy, fauna, Fiction, good and bad, guillermo del toro, illusion, imagination, innocence, light, pan's labyrinth, realism, reality, sacrifice, spain, spanish, spanish civil war, special effects, Suffering, youth | Leave a comment

Waltz With Bashir (Folman, 2008)

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Kamran Ahmed

Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir (2008) presents a convergence of fictional and non-fictional elements in that the story is true—depicting actual events—yet animated. Shifting the viewer’s attention between modes of documentary and fictional consciousness, the film has shored up much … Continue reading →