Fantasy | Cagey Films

Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on June 11, 2025June 14, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Office drone Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) has heroic fantasies in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985)

Criterion’s new edition of Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil (1985) presents an impressive new 4K restoration which highlights the dense, endlessly inventive production design of Gilliam’s blackly comic dystopian vision of a world run by an oppressive but utterly incompetent bureaucracy, even more pertinent now than it was in the middle of Reagan’s presidency. The three-disk, dual-format set includes a comprehensive history of the production and the controversy surrounding Gilliam’s fight to get the film released, as well as the truly awful alternate “Love Conquers All” cut put together by Universal in a misguided attempt to make the film “more commercial”.

Theatrical viewing, early 2025

Posted on June 4, 2025June 1, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Paddington leads the Brown family on an adventure in Dougal Wilson's Paddington in Peru (2024)

One of the benefits of retirement is being able to go to weekday matinees, which means seeing movies in almost empty theatres – the best way as far as I’m concerned. So this year I’ve already seen more movies than all of last year or the year before . But that also means I’ve seen a few movies I probably wouldn’t have bothered with before. Among the duds, though, have been some good – or at least interesting – movies I’m glad I saw on a big screen.

Dipping another toe into the online stream, part two

Posted on March 19, 2025March 19, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Nicholas Cage goes full Nic Cage in Longlegs (2024)

My recent streaming seems to lean heavily into horror, with a few animated movies to lighten the tone.

David Lynch on life, art and Eraserhead

Posted on February 26, 2025March 8, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Lynch on the set of Eraserhead with Jack Nance in David Lynch: The Art Life (2016)

In December 1981 I got to meet David Lynch and spend time with him in his office at Universal Studios as he recounted the remarkable story of making his first feature, Eraserhead (1977). But he talked about much more – his early life, his passion for art, and how painting and sculpture evolved into an interest in filmmaking. Although I’ve previously published the transcripts of those sessions in my book about Eraserhead, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to David to post the actual recordings here; when spoken in his distinctive voice, his words convey so much more than they do on the page.

A world of horror from Arrow and Severin

Posted on February 5, 2025February 5, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Koji Shiraishi’s Noroi: The Curse (2005)

Two recent box sets – Arrow’s J-Horror Rising and Severin’s All the Haunts Be Ours Vol. 2 – provide a dizzying range of horror and fantasy movies from multiple cultures and cinematic traditions. Each set includes a range of extras which illuminate not only the cultural differences but also similarities in theme and emotional impact displayed by these movies.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part five

Posted on December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

John Carradine can't believe what he's gotten himself into in Oliver Drake's The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals (1969)

Yet more notes on recent viewing, featuring horror – both high and low end – some documentaries and action movies, gritty realism and slick fantasy … eclectic and somewhat random.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part three

Posted on December 4, 2024December 4, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) loses his sense of identity in George A. Romero's Bruiser (2000)

Recent viewing includes a mix of horror, sci-fi and social commentary, from George A. Romero’s Bruiser (2000), about an office drone whose social invisibility enables him to exact revenge on his abusers, to a pair of Mexican Gothic fantasies about a vampire count; from an Aussie Indiana Jones rip-off to late effects artist David Allen’s passion project The Primevals, left unfinished at his death in 1999 but now completed by his friends.

The 5th Hong Kong International Film Festival, part six

Posted on November 23, 2024November 24, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

A pair of resistance fighters hiding as a married couple fall in love in István Szabó's Confidence (1980)

Part six of my review of what I saw at the Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival covers a handful of Eastern European films which range across history and politics and into fantasy.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part one

Posted on November 6, 2024November 6, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Every two minutes Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) finds herself back in the same moment in Junta Yamaguchi’s River (2023)

My Fall viewing has been the usual varied mix, with a number of new and classic Japanese movies, John Boorman’s fantasy sequel to The Exorcist, Alex Garland’s uncomfortably prescient depiction of America tearing itself apart, a slice of anti-drug exploitation from the late-’60s, and a surprising discovery from none other than Bert I. Gordon.

Masahiro Shinoda’s Demon Pond (1979): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on October 12, 2024October 11, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Yuri (Tamasaburô Bandô) bridges the divide between the material and spiritual worlds in Masahiro Shinoda's Demon Pond (1979)

Japanese New Wave filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda uses a range of styles and registers to evoke Japan’s tumultuous Twentieth Century history in the allegorical fantasy Demon Pond (1979), newly restored in 4K and released in dual formats by Criterion.

Tag: Fantasy