surprisingly gorgeous, operatic samurai epic about selling your soul to the demonic pantheon to defeat the Tokugawa shogunate.

what a blast! the beautiful technicolour practical sets evoke 1985 masterpiece Ran, but this is far too manic, profane and perverted to be mistaken for a Kurosawa movie. maybe a bit too manic; life is so cheap, and the grudges so plentiful, that new stakes are often set up a mere two scenes before they come into play. I found myself sometimes…

"What do you think of this boner I got?"

Incomprehensible. Except on a Grand Cinematic Emotions level, which is coherent, but doesn't connect at all to the Big Messages that are also constantly being drilled into your skull. Scenes always arrive in a way that makes you ask "wait, how did we get here?" and the question is never answered. Maximalist to the extreme, Southland Tales by way of Baz Luhrrman - I'll defend it aesthetically and say refusing the…