This is your life, and it’s being illustrated in watercolors, bleeding into the pages of a medieval nightmare. Welcome to Belladonna of Sadness (1973). You think you’ve seen “trippy”? You haven’t. This isn’t just an anime; it’s a jagged, erotic, psychedelic assault on your retinas. It’s the final installment of the Animerama trilogy, and it’s the only film that […]

This is your life, and it’s a slow-motion car crash involving two people who hate each other, but hate being alone even more. Welcome to Mikio Naruse’s Floating Clouds (1955). If you’re looking for a romantic comedy where the guy gets the girl and they ride off into the sunset, go watch something manufactured for mass consumption. […]

This is your life, and it’s a photograph of a memory you’re currently hallucinating. You’re watching Shūji Terayama’s Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974), and the reality you walked into the room with is already leaking out of the floorboards. Forget the plot. There is no plot. There is only a circus of freaks, a pile […]