The Isle is sick, but it is not empty spectacle.

| Sep 16, 2020

In the (genius) Coen Brother's film The Big Lebowski, Julianne Moore's character Maude is an avant garde artist who describes her painting as "strongly vaginal." Until The Isle, I thought that was simply a funny joke...

| Original Score: A- | Jun 21, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2007

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 21, 2005

A creepy, gruesome, gorgeous and flabbergasting treatise on romantic obsession and violent, nasty male-female relationships.

| Original Score: B- | May 4, 2005

It's the safest of bets that this is one Asian film that won't get a Hollywood remake.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 8, 2004

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 19, 2004

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 14, 2004

Spring, Summer fans should only have their appreciation of that film expanded by seeing this rougher take on similar themes.

| May 21, 2004

Sushi for the connoisseurs of the macabre.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 29, 2003

The evocative imagery and gentle, lapping rhythms of this film are infectious -- it gets under our skin and draws us in long before the plot kicks into gear.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 13, 2003

If you can get past the fantastical aspects and harsh realities of "The Isle" you'll get a sock-you-in-the-eye flick that is a visual tour-de-force and a story that is unlike any you will likely see anywhere else.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 20, 2003

Ki-duk Kim has created a provocatively violent and sexual film with an oddly idyllic sensibility. It's a mysterious but ultimately rewarding experience.

| Original Score: B | Mar 16, 2003

Made me unintentionally famous - as the queasy-stomached critic who staggered from the theater and blacked out in the lobby. But believe it or not, it's one of the most beautiful, evocative works I've seen.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 11, 2003

Equal parts Takashi Miike and Shohei Imamura.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 12, 2003

Beautiful, angry and sad, with a curious sick poetry, as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 31, 2003

There is little question that this is a serious work by an important director who has something new to say about how, in the flip-flop of courtship, we often reel in when we should be playing out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 16, 2003

The vivid lead performances sustain interest and empathy, but the journey is far more interesting than the final destination.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 6, 2003

A gorgeous and grotesque Korean film by director Kim Ki-Duk, who seems torn by his artistic and exploitive impulses.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 3, 2003