In the month of December, I matched Shopgirl (2005) with seven recent films about lovers separated by age. The finest remains Susan Sarandon & James Spader in White Palace (1990), where a happy ending was the only misstep in an otherwise candid romance. At the shallow end of the pool are Michelle Pfeiffer & Paul [...]

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In the month of November, I circled the globe to sample recent animated features. I could have devoted the month to anime in Japan and another to the work of Studio Ghibli, whose masterpieces like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are too good to be considered “Japanese anime”. I loved every movie I covered [...]

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In the month of October, I uncovered my eyes to take a look at nine recent horror films from eight different countries. I stayed away from France and Japan — two nations with robust genre film operations — because what I’d seen there appeared far too flagrant for my tastes. Another trend I noticed was [...]

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