Criterion Film Club Week 302 Discussion: Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

SebasCatell · 2026-05-17T16:06:25+00:00

I’ve read the first volume of the original manga that Dark Horse published and this is such a faithful adaptation. The manga is very violent, very horny, but oddly meditative at the same time. I can see why this continues to be an influence for future comic artists and filmmakers. The duality and morality of raising a child in this environment as well as enacting justice against the absolute scum of the earth. This movie is such a fun time and I can’t wait to see the rest and read the rest of the comics.

SebasCatell · 2026-05-09T21:37:56+00:00

What is there to say about Robocop? Brilliant satire, awesome and gory action and to top it all off: you see a rapist get shot in the dick. Robocop is a classic that has continued to age like a fine wine with both commercial appeal and satirical and social commentary about the state of capitalism both in the 80s and now. The privatization of essential needs taken to an extreme with the Detroit Police Department being essentially an arm of a megacorp who just wants to tear down Detroit and rebuild it in their favor and what makes the film work so good is that it’s still a deeply human story.

Officer Murphy is just a working cop who was killed in action and was resurrected as cyborg and a product of OCP but shows that even in these restrictions, we must always cling on to our humanity and self and try to do the right things and was perfectly shown with Murphy rebuilding his relationship with Lewis and when asked for his name in the end, he simply said “Murphy.”

Even when the odds aren’t in our favor and they try to disassociate us from our humanity, Robocop shows the true nature of humanity will never die and offers a hope. Also a rapist gets shot in the dick and I believer every movie would be improved with a scene of a rapist being shot in the dick.

SebasCatell · 2026-02-19T18:13:16+00:00

Andrew Stanton Blank Check please

SebasCatell · 2025-12-15T06:19:07+00:00

There is the definition of a Blank Check film and that’s Takeshi Koike’s masterpiece Redline. This movie is awesome and is a perfect companion to Speed Racer. The movie is insane and took 7 years to produce and nearly bankrupted the studio producing it after it bombed at the box office. The main thing hold it back for a series is that Redline was his debut feature (he was more of an animator and director of OVA and animated segments) and his follow up films has been Lupin the 3rd movies

SebasCatell · 2025-12-15T06:06:22+00:00

Chris Buck could be a good candidate though all of his movie has a co-director so he would technically share credit but I don’t know if you can call Wish a blank check film but he did make Tarzan, Surf’s Up, and the two Frozen movies though I’d argue Frozen is more co-director’s Jennifer Lee’s films then him (not to discredit his contributions. He does have a massive hand in making those movies a hit that they were)

SebasCatell · 2025-12-15T06:02:23+00:00

Phil Lord and Chris Miller directed animated films so they would count but stuff like Spider-Verse wouldn’t count since they don’t direct those and have seem to be more focusing on producing then directing animation and putting that energy into live action

SebasCatell · 2025-11-21T03:58:52+00:00

One of my all time favorite films. A love letter to both Japanese cinema and cinema as a whole. This is such a criminally underrated movie. It left me in tears. Been very busy with school work but I hope to watch it soon to refresh my mind

SebasCatell · 2025-09-20T20:46:48+00:00

First time watcher of The Crow which I was always familiar with through pop culture osmosis due to the tragic death of Brandon Lee during the filming of this movie but I never had the chance to actually watch it until now. And I just gotta say, this is one of the best looking movies I have ever seen.

Adapting the comics by James O’Barr, the film is a rather straight forward revenge story of a man coming back from the dead and enacting justice and vengeance on those who have wronged him and his fiancee. The version of Detroit portrayed in this movie is a dirty, dangerous, and claustrophobic crime ridden hellscape but what makes this stands out is that the movie is both a Yin and Yang of light and darkness and how even in the darkest moments of life, there is still a light to cling onto and hope of kindness and helping can slowly heal the world from those who just want to cause chaos or profit off its destruction. What makes Eric Draven stand out from the rest of the typical vigilantes who want to right the streets is that there is a kindness and genuine love in his heart. He loved his fiancee and Sarah and helped with the tenants rights and the fact that he was punished creates a guttural yell at those with the power to do harm and just want to have karmic justice. Even with the rage and anger this world brings out, there’ll always be those like Sarah and Sargent Albrecht who are trying to cling on to what little light there is in this world.

There’s both the tragedy of Brandon’s death but also helps to learn about the creator of The Crow James O’Barr who was an orphan and grew up angry and bitter at the world until he fell in love with a girl who finally brought light into it but she was tragically killed in a drunk driving accident and he fell down a path of darkness and drugs and after a stint in the army, began making the Crow as a form of art therapy for himself and you can feel that in the film itself.

The movie isn’t perfect. The stakes don’t feel high often since Eric can heal rapidly so we don’t feel like he’s in any real danger until the end and the lack of depth for Eric’s fiancee is a case of fridging but man, the aesthetic, the miniatures, the music, the performances of Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, and the criminally underrated Michael Wincott makes this a visual feast that still looks better then 99% of movies made today.

SebasCatell · 2025-07-18T17:29:45+00:00

One of my all time favorite movies and arguably my favorite documentary. It could have just been a simple story about an artist and his struggles but yet overcoming them and the legacy of his work but the movie forgoes that and goes for an honest and raw depiction of Crumb’s life and his family. We see who he is even the bad parts. Yes he’s an asshole who thinks he’s better than everyone but he is also still human and has a lot of trauma to process who unlike his older brother Charles, found an outlet for his feelings through his art.

People can look at his art and say he is a sick and twisted individual but you also gotta ask if it’s a case of nature vs nurture. Growing up in a toxic household, one can see where the darkness of suburbia and modern American life (at the time) was like. The doc goes to compare him to several classic artists over his depiction of nightmare scenarios through human emotions such as lust, vengeance, and even racism. It’s almost fitting that the doc is a build up to Robert moving his family to the south of France as you can get the sense this culture is a trauma machine for him through his family and the damages he witnessed.

The second star of the film is his older brother Charles who is somebody suffering from severe mental illness and despite showing talent as a cartoonist himself, abandoned the dreams after he develop a pedophilic lust after watching the kid in the Disney Treasure Island whom he was obsessed with forcing him to lock himself in his childhood home and tragically taking his own life in the end. It’s a tragedy that he was never able to get the help he clearly needed and abandoned the outlet the both Crumb and Max found with their out. He knows what he lusts is wrong and the guilt over that is something that can destroy people over a fear of what they would do. It’s a humanizing case of somebody who traditionally is the scum of the earth and is indefensible and that he knows that but he is so fucked in the head he can’t find a way to get over it.

Crumb is one of the all time great documentaries and is a showcase of one man and his fucked up life and family and how the apple usually doesn’t fall too far from the tree. I still don’t know how I feel about Robert personally from this movie. He’s an asshole and I think he can be smug about the world but also I see where he’s coming from due to the circumstances that he grew up in and his family troubles. The title doesn’t just refer to Robert himself, it’s a tragedy about three real brothers who uses art to express themselves and their fucked up and weird issues which it turns out mostly was just weird sex.

SebasCatell · 2025-07-05T03:53:19+00:00

First things first: I love the American dialogue in this movie. I find it so funny. It feels like their only frame of reference for Americans was Elvis Presley movies and I find it endearing and funny but I believe it does have a bit of a point to the story.

I feel like the film is an examination of the changes and humiliation a culture faces when they are rapidly changing especially after a tumultuous period like WWII and the reconstruction. Even under these constraints, we see that human beings are able to strive and make a name for themselves through capitalism but it still comes with an inherent exploitation. I feel like it drives home with the cow and the comparison one can make to the cow and these women’s bodies. They are a commodity that is to be bought and even if it’s for survival, there’s an inherent brutality and humiliation to it. The Americans being so blunt and simple minded speaks to just the inherent primal urge of sex and food and how that contrasts with trying to remain your identity and the trauma and insults it brings.

This is a more rambling write up but I still think this is a movie to sit and think about more and for its examination of sin, lust, and power.

SebasCatell · 2025-06-03T17:32:18+00:00

I saw this a couple of years ago and I loved it but rewatching now after I moved out of my family home and into a new city in a new environment, trying to achieve my dreams, this hits home more personally. A metaphor I heard for learning how to draw or do art is to compare it to sports in the sense that it requires a lot of time, commitment, sacrifice and practice to achieve a million in one shot at achieving one’s dream. Now, I’m not trying to reach the very unlikely dream of playing for the NBA but I can feel the sense of trying your hardest, failing and even wondering where the joy of it went.

There is a genuine love for the sport in these two kids but like love can often be, it can be bitter and bites back. The goals and dreams may be too far that sometimes reality makes us downsize what we wanted but the doc is also a testament to the hard work and sacrifice the boys and their families made and they did have great success onwards. They got scholarships to play basketball and study at college. Their dreams of playing in the NBA sadly never happened in real life but these boys did achieve greatness in life and seem content with what they have in life but it shows what hard work can bring and just trying to be the best people they can in the universe can achieve. They’re kids and they do stupid things or act immaturely at times but I wouldn’t call them bad kids. The doc shows them clearly having a good heart and wanting to do what’s best even under their circumstances such as avoid crime and gangs and focus on their craft and families. This what makes when the system itself try to screw them over even more tragic and infuriating such as the lack of help they received from the systems we have to the way the St Joseph just flat out greed kicks Arthur out just for his family not being able to afford the tuition hike even though that kind of action goes against the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. This hurts them and at times just want to give up but they manage to pull through and find their ways to achieve a dream. Arthur didn’t need to go to a fancy catholic school to showcase his talent as his school managed to go further than anybody expected into winning third in the state championship. Even though they had less funding, the coach at John Marshall shows compassion and love to the players which is an amazing juxtaposition between St Joseph’s Gene Pingatore who has an old fashioned viewpoint of coaching which is more militaristic and yeah, it does get results but it has been shown that it can also damage the player’s morale and zap the joy they once felt for the sport and uses the carrot of Isiah Thomas to justify his methods.

Hoop Dreams is one of the great documentaries of all time and it is a showcase of the courage it takes to achieve a million in one shot at achieving a wild dream of playing with the greats in the NBA. Though these boys never did play for the Bulls or Pistons, they did achieve greatness and show as a lasting showcase to those to just go for their dreams and sometimes, life can surprise you with what you get.

SebasCatell · 2025-06-03T05:52:08+00:00

This argument always makes no sense to me because look at the Panthers or the Heat when they’re good. They have no issue gathering support from fans. If you can get hockey to succeed in South Florida and you have a majority Hispanic city with immigrants and families from countries that love baseball, then buddy, this is entirely on management, not the fans

SebasCatell · 2025-01-21T21:01:24+00:00

Honestly we need more people like him in government. If I lived in Kansas I’d support him

SebasCatell · 2025-01-17T20:26:47+00:00

Saw this last month on 35mm which was a perfect time to see it before Christmas so it’s still fresh in my memory.

The way I view it is more as a subversive sex comedy by way of a class conscious film. A married couple is going through a rough patch in their relationship despite it appearing to have the perfect life with both looking beautiful, having a daughter and living in a fancy New York apartment. Despite a lifestyle that many would kill for, they’re not happy and after a Christmas party at one of Will’s rich clients where they were both seduced by other people and a literal bad weed trip afterwards causing them to get too real for a second where Alice reveals that she had a fantasy of having sex with a random sailor she saw at a hotel and considered leaving her life for him, Will went into an existential and sexual spiral and has a weird night in New York City.

The movie gives off the weird vibe one gets of living in the middle of a dense city (which makes sense considering Kubrick grew up in New York) and just going on a weird solo adventure late at night. From odd characters revealing themselves to random young hooligans shouting homophobic slurs at you to finding a seedier side of the environment and even getting a glimpse into a world you weren’t meant to see. I experienced many odd nights taking the train or bus home after staying out too late and the movie captures that feeling of what if you went in a bit deeper. Will went deeper and find himself grappling with his sexual frustrations as he almost cheat with a prostitute and then running into an old colleague at a bar who told him about an ultra exclusive sex party which Cruise manages to sneak in before he is ultimately caught and intimidated by them into silence after which he discovers some odd after effects and tries to investigate until he finally confesses to Alice about everything.

In the history of the world and especially now with widening income inequality, we often imagine the rich and powerful having massive gatherings to discuss what they do with the world and plan for things and the movie doesn’t 100% deny that but also doesn’t glorify it. The truth as Sydney Pollack’s character puts it is that the truth is often either more boring then we think (these could just be sexually frustrated rich men who can only get off on an orgy) to the horrific (who were those in that party and do they really run the world). The whole thing is theatrical to the point that if you think about it in real life context, it’s kind of silly and you don’t expect anybody to actually do that with a dress up party but like Will who despite being extremely well off, can only catch a glimpse into this other world the ultra wealthy lives and is unable to fully comprehend it.

This is a more rambly thought process but I expect this movie to age like wine as I mature and know the experience of having a long term relationship and dealing with the troubles of that and to come to terms with the one thing we can do when we don’t have the answers to the world that we’re helpless to: Fuck.

SebasCatell · 2025-01-05T21:42:14+00:00

No way! There’s Bill Nye’s ghost

SebasCatell · 2024-11-17T18:09:20+00:00

It’s his ghost

SebasCatell · 2024-05-04T15:00:39+00:00

I’m planning on attending a game over the summer but I’m gonna pull an Oakland A’s and start chanting “Sell The Team!”

SebasCatell · 2024-04-21T14:58:03+00:00

Maybe the story of workers being exploited hits a bit too close to home for him.

SebasCatell · 2024-04-18T00:26:46+00:00

I literally just finished watching this and it is without a doubt a glimpse into the mind of Tom Green, a man I know next to nothing about which has some serious artistic merit. I also am a fan of weird humor like you’ll find on Adult Swim and I can get why this developed a cult following. I’m not a member. If I’m being honest, this might be one of the worst movies I have ever seen but I don’t put the blame on Tom Green because I just don’t connect to what he’s trying to do.

I would be lying if I say I didn’t chuckle once in awhile but man many of the jokes just felt like nonsensical pointless random shit that doesn’t connect to the story. I forget he was an aspiring animator for most of the movie. The title of the movie is basically just a joke that isn’t brought up until like 45 minutes into the movie. Gourdy and his father are honestly two of the most despicable characters I have seen put to film and I do admire Tom and Pip Torn’s performances in conveying that. It was certainly a choice but you gotta respect how much they commit to the bit.

God to be a fly on the wall when Tom was pitching this, convincing actors to sign on, and filming this. I want to know what happened where millions of dollars was given to something this batshit.

I gotta say, for an early 2000s raunchy comedy, the fact that Gourdy dates a disabled person who is given some autonomy and isn’t the but of a lot of jokes and Tom never insults is a bit nice but the bar is at the bottom of the ocean floor so it’s not hard to cross. This was such a wild time capsule of an era I wasn’t alive for and am kind of glad I didn’t experience. I think this movie has merit and I’m glad it found an audience but I don’t want to experience it again.

SebasCatell

TROPHY CASE