5 Razors

Drive My Car

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Drive My Car
  • IMDb: link

Movies find you in interesting ways. Drive My Car is the film I’d been searching for through all of 2021, a true cinematic experience that enveloped me, taking me on a completely unexpected journey built on strong storytelling and great performances.

Adapting Haruki Murakami‘s short story, writer/director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi delivers a beautiful look at loss, moving on, and the unexpected relationships that form when you least expect them. Our main character is Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a stage actor and director. The script spends more than a half-hour developing his relationship to his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima), including some shocking discoveries by Kafuku, which works as backstory for the main film still yet to come, but is still presented with such care it could easily have been fleshed out into its own film.

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The Human Target #3

/ / Comics

I can’t say enough about how much I am loving this comic that continues to mix a dying detective’s noir search for his own killer with just the right notes of Justice League International nostalgia. The Human Target #3 not only gives us Guy Gardner, who shows up to throw a hissy fit after discovering Ice is spending time with Christopher Chance, but also more of Ice and Chance together, and Chance talking to another former JLI member in full self-promotion mode.

We get Booster Gold in almost all his glory (sadly, no Elvis collar) along with Gardner, and Ice are all put to great use here. The cherry on top here is an unexpected final cameo of the one person who could get Guy to back off which. Aside for being a pitch perfect nod to the comic history Tom King is playing in, it further illustrates how smart and innovative Chance is, even if he remains far from finding his killer.

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The Human Target #2

/ / Comics

The Human Target continues to surprise as the second issue introduces the dying Christopher Chance to the Justice League International‘s Ice in something of a femme fatale role who charms Chance into spending the day with her (using up one of his 11 remaining) while offering her help on the case and attempting to convince him that her best friend, despite strong motives, isn’t responsible for the attempt on Lex Luthor’s life.

Ice, rather than Fire, is an interesting choice for this role which seems far removed from her role within the JLI but still fits within the established character while offering something new. She mesmerizes Chance who notes both her coldness and the warmth of her charms. Chance accepts Ice’s help, and a late reveal gives an interesting spin on their entire day together, but our dying hero can’t help but speculate if he’s already met his killer.

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Summer of Soul

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
  • IMDb: link

Summer of Soul movie reviewIn the same summer as Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival held a series of concerts to celebrate African American music and culture. The more than 40 hours of concert footage has been sitting around for decades and now can finally be seen.

Director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson weaves the performances together with a cultural narrative and interviews from surviving performers and attendees. Along with the numerous great performances, Summer of Soul also captures the immense crowds present at the events only to see the concert be lost to time. Until now.

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1991 – The Silence of the Lambs

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Silence of the Lambs
  • IMDb: link

The Silence of the Lambs movie review30 years ago, on Valentine’s Day, The Silence of the Lambs was released in theaters. While not the first of Thomas Harris‘ novels to be written about Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), nor the first to be adapted to film, The Silence of the Lambs stands out from the rest for the odd pairing central to its story. With prequels, sequels, and even television series, Hollywood has searched for a way to recreate the magic of a film that took home Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay while earning a reputation as an instant classic. 30 years later, they’re still looking.

The first thing you notice about watching The Silence of the Lambs is how well it holds up building tension and teasing the audience where the story will lead next. We start with the introduction of a FBI trainee sent to interview the former psychiatrist and currently incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer. The unusual relationship between the pair will provide the heart of the film as Lecter offers to help Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) hunt down a current serial killer, and former patient, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), as the tabloids have named him, who is killing and skinning young women.

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