Blake Simons
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🎥 interview evangelist, freelance programmer, 2026 Daiwa Scholar
✍ romance, japan, animation, queer at @BFI @IndieWire @Variety @japantimes and more
Articles by Blake Simons
Heart of the Beast: a bracingly executed man-and-dog survival story
Brad Pitt stars as a traumatised US soldier stranded in the wilderness with his military security dog in a tense action thriller from David Ayer that’s strongest in its quieter moments. 25 September 2026 Brad Pitt as James Belmont Courtesy of Paramount UK Cynics once used to joke about equestrian-themed films that “The horse has all the best lines.” In Heart of the Beast, Odin the German Shepherd may not actually have the best lines, but he has the best reaction shots.
Ghost Song: A fleshed-out and full-blooded portrayal of youthful amour fou
Reviewed from the 2026 San Sebastián Film Festival. A sort of Gen Z, Hamburg-set variation on Wings of Desire (1987), Fatih Akin’s Ghost Song is an ambitious, striking and largely persuasive metaphysical romance. Co-written with Ruth Tomas, it’s Akin’s first time in competition at a prominent film-festival – San Sebastian – since 2019’s grand-guignol serial-killer drama The Golden Glove (2019) shocked audiences at the Berlinale.
Kore-eda Hirokazu on Adapting Fujimoto Tatsuki’s Manga for Venice Competition Film ‘Look Back’
Home Film News Sep 6, 2026 10:29pm PT Venice FIlm Festival “Look Back” is Kore-eda Hirokazu’s third time working from manga source material, but never before has the arthouse filmmaker drawn from such a commercially popular and internationally beloved work. A one-volume story from “Chainsaw Man” mangaka Fujimoto Tatsuki, “Look Back” follows the converging, then diverging, fates of two classmates, Fujino and Kyomoto, who achieve their professional manga-making dreams while still in school.
A home movie for Planet Earth: Ed Sayers on his Super 8 odyssey Super Nature
Ed Sayers’ first feature – and his affinity for the format it was filmed on – has its origins in the previous century. 1999 marked the debut of the now-annual Straight 8 film competition, set up by Sayers as a challenge to filmmakers to make short films each from a single roll of Super 8mm film.
Miike Takashi Shines an Intimate Spotlight on a Kabuki Legend in Debut Documentary ‘Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki’
Home Film News Sep 3, 2026 11:59pm PT Kishin Shinoyama The most remarkable thing about Miike Takashi — whose filmography spans well over a hundred features in a smorgasbord of different genres and styles — is that he has never made a documentary. But now he’s at Venice with doc “Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki.” The films screen out of competition. “I take on a variety of work,” reflects Miike. “It’s all film — I don’t really differentiate between modes.
Miike Takashi Shines an Intimate Spotlight on a Kabuki Legend in Debut Documentary ‘Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki’
The most remarkable thing about Miike Takashi — whose filmography spans well over a hundred features in a smorgasbord of different genres and styles — is that he has never made a documentary. But now he's at Venice with doc "Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki." The films screen out of competition. "I take on a variety of work," reflects Miike. "It's all film — I don't really differentiate between modes.
In Venice Competition Film ‘Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People?’ Director Tsukamoto Shinya Asks Vital Questions Original
Home Film News Sep 3, 2026 11:15pm PT Venice Film Festival Independent filmmaker Tsukamoto Shinya was born 15 years after the end of World War II. “Neither my parents nor my grandparents ever spoke about the war, so I grew up believing, without question, that the world was a bright and peaceful place,” says Tsukamoto. “But beneath the surface, many people were suffering from the dark effects of the war.” Those effects have weighed heavily on Tsukamoto’s mind over the past decade.
Gregg Araki on I Want Your Sex: “The despair of the bad makes the euphoria of the good even more intense”
Gregg Araki acutely captured the 90s alternative zeitgeist with his ‘Teen Apocalypse Trilogy’ (Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere), a trio of pop-punk arthouse hangout movies that established him as a leading beacon of the New Queer Cinema movement. In the 2000s, he attracted mainstream attention with PTSD sci-fi Mysterious Skin (2004) and stoner comedy Smiley Face (2007).
Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii: Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift review – skin-crawlingly close to the bone
Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii: Junior Ghosts – Premorphic Drift review – skin-crawlingly close to the bone Louise Weard’s sprawling trans anthology gets its most accessible entry yet with Chapter iii.ii, a bracingly honest, handheld study of a fractured relationship. 4 Anticipation. A thrillingly singular cinematic experiment continues. 4 Enjoyment. Skin-crawlingly close to the bone. 4 In Retrospect. Works for and against everyone.
‘Cherry And Virgin’ Director Masanao Kawajiri On Rotoscoping Sex And The Emotions That Come With It
AnimeFeature FilmInterviews Sign up to get our news digest — delivered directly to your inbox twice a week. Ryo (Takashi Okado) is a successful author and illustrator of erotic manga. His outlandish, steamy scenarios are pure fantasy, as Ryo has never actually had sex. Ami (Risa Hinami) is a commercial illustrator and boys’ love fanatic. She’s never had sex either. Resolving to make a change in their lives, they each download a dating app and soon come together.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day: An underwhelming spidey spectacle
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker returns amid an existential crisis in a brand-extension blockbuster that lacks the springy spontaneity of Spider-Man: Homecoming. 31 July 2026 Tom Holland as Peter Parker in Spider Man: Brand New Day (2026)Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment What tangled webs we weave.
Animal Farm: Cutesy adaptation of George Orwell’s text falls flat
Director Andy Serkis’s animation updates Orwell’s political satire into a kid-friendly triumph over adversity with sloppy slapstick and an extended fart gag. 30 July 2026 Animal Farm (2025)Courtesy of Vue Lumière If years have passed since you last picked up George Orwell’s evergreen allegorical 1945 novel – and how many of us haven’t since encountering it as an enshrined secondary school curriculum text? – you’d be forgiven for forgetting certain elements.
Toei Launches Eterna Animation With Original Short ‘Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki’
AnimeBusinessShortsStudios Sign up to get our news digest — delivered directly to your inbox twice a week. Toei Animation celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, and with that milestone comes new faces and new challenges.
Suzu Hirose is ready to ‘step into the unknown’
Suzu Hirose is an all but ubiquitous presence in the Japanese entertainment industry these days. The 28-year-old actor, whose searching eyes peer out from soft features, rose to prominence through films such as “Our Little Sister”(2015) and “The Third Murder” (2017), both directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and the live-action adaptations of anime series “Chihayafuru”(2016-18).
Bouchra: a striking animation about identity, connection and creativity
An animated New York populated by anthropomorphic animals is the backdrop for directors Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki’s tale of a queer filmmaker channelling her complicated relationship with her Moroccan mother into art. 27 July 2026 Bouchra (2025) Bouchra is many things. She’s a queer filmmaker living in New York; an expat; a lover; a daughter; a jackal-headed human.
“It’s never quite brutal enough for Chris”: The Odyssey cast reveal how they created Christopher Nolan’s epic adventure
A mammoth adventure epic that shot for 91 days across six months in six countries and cost a reported $250 million to make, The Odyssey is a cinematic beast worthy of its own mythology. Adapting and doing justice to one of the foundational texts of Western literature is a big gig. But if one director can take on a full-blooded adaptation of Homer’s epic 8th-century BC poem, it’s Christopher Nolan.
“I use musical theory to shoot an action sequence”: an exclusive online interview with John Woo
In August 1986, Hong Kong was running out of Ray Bans. Director John Woo and producer Tsui Hark had just unveiled their brooding action epic A Better Tomorrow, a tale of treachery and brotherhood among cops and crooks that would quickly become the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong cinema history, and rapturous fans were impatient to emulate the signature style of its leading man, Chow Yun-Fat.
John Waters on restoring Hairspray and Desperate Living: “The mistakes are part of the charm”
When his films first shocked, charmed, and terrorised theatres in the 70s and 80s, John Waters was an unlikely candidate for mainstream canonisation. But here we are, with six of his feature films now released in lovingly restored Blu-ray editions from The Criterion Collection – joining this month are Hairspray (1988) and Desperate Living (1977).
Leave a Trace: Nagisa Isogai on ‘Polar Night’ and ‘The Lust of Angels’
The Lust of Angels (2014) A packed commuter train. A high school girl reads a book whilst standing up, holding on to a hanging strap to steady herself. The man standing behind her, on the other hand, is in no danger of losing his balance – but he doesn’t feel he needs an alibi to shift his position. He moves his hand purposefully and firmly to the girl’s buttock and up her skirt. The other passengers remain motionless, minding their own business. Well, almost all of them.
‘Empathy Was Essential’: ‘We Are Aliens’ Director Kohei Kadowaki On Hybrid Rotoscoping, Visual Rhythms, And Childhood Influences
Two boys, classmates in a rural Japanese town during the Heisei era. One is seemingly normal; the other is seemingly not. Influenced by hallway rumors, the “normal” of the two, Tsubasa (Ryota Bando), starts to fear that his friend Kyotaro (Amane Okayama) is, in fact, an alien. An impulsive incident reshapes the boys’ relationship, sending them on diverging paths in a journey that spans 20 years of their lives.
‘All the Lovers in the Night’ film adaptation brings ‘unstable beauty’ to the screen
Mieko Kawakami’s graceful yet uncompromising prose that captures the kaleidoscopic realities of modern Japanese womanhood has made her a literary figure of international renown. Adaptation has punctuated Kawakami’s rise to prominence. Her breakthrough novel “Breasts and Eggs,” translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd, was brought to the stage at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany, in 2022.
‘It’s such a luxury to sit in flaws and humanness’: Elliot Tuttle, Kieron Moore, and Reed Birney on ‘Blue Film’
A stream window with a live chat. A camboy flexes his naked torso in front of the camera for an audience who submit their funds when he tells them to. He’ll get his cock out next, he says—if you pay up. Financial domination is the name of the game, and Aaron Eagle (Kieron Moore) believes that he’s won it when he’s offered $50,000 to show up at an anonymous user’s house for the night.
Short, Sweet, and Steady: Shinnosuke Abe talks MIRRORLIAR FILMS
If you live outside of Japan, you likely haven’t heard of MIRRORLIAR FILMS yet. Allow me to introduce you. Mirrorliar Films is an acclaimed initiative for short filmmaking. The project launched a successful series of anthology releases of short films in Japanese theatres — its eight instalment released last year, with a ninth currently in the works.
‘Chimney Town: Frozen In Time’ Director Yusuke Hirota On Studio 4ºC’s Hybrid Animation Approach
AnimeFeature FilmInterviews In 2020, pioneering Japanese anime production house Studio 4ºC released Poupelle of Chimney Town, its first 3D CG feature. A fantasy fable set in a steampunk world with light touches of gothic, Halloween aesthetics, the film was adapted from a bestselling children’s book by actor and comedian Akihiro Nishino, who also wrote and executive-produced the film. Six years on, and Studio has done more than dip its toes into CG.
Nurturing Empathy: Shun Nakagawa on ‘90 Meters’
A confession: I didn’t watch all that much in the cinema at the Udine Far East Film Festival this year. Having already seen the vast majority of the Japanese films in this year’s lineup, I instead found myself drifting between the festival’s interview room (Koji Yakusho!); networking events (Japanese Night!); and some seriously good Napoli pizzas with friends (carbs!). One film that I did see in the grand Teatro Nuevo however was 90 Meters.
Japan’s Cannes moment signals a new global push
When Tao Okamoto became the first Japanese performer to win the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress prize on May 24, sharing the award with Belgium’s Virginie Efira for their roles in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama “All of a Sudden,” the honor marked a milestone in Japanese cinema while underscoring its growing international reach.
Inside Chronically Online: a big-screen celebration of small-screen curiosities
Inside Chronically Online: a big-screen celebration of small-screen curiosities From ‘Charlie Bit My Finger‘ to ‘The Nick Clegg Apology Song‘, Chronically Online brings some of the internet's most beloved cultural touchstones to big screens across the UK. From ‘Charlie Bit My Finger‘ to ‘The Nick Clegg Apology Song‘, Chronically Online brings some of the internet’s most beloved cultural touchstones to big screens across the UK.
‘Another World’ Director & Producer Explore Life and Death in Award-Winning Animated Feature
This article was written for the June ’26 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 359). The Golden Horse-winning feature Another World is a new frontier for Hong Kong’s burgeoning animation industry. The unlikely origins of the project, which will be released by GKIDS in the U.S. on June 5, go back a decade. “The Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten ran a campaign,” explains producer Polly Yeung.
Writing a Legend: Suga Munemitsu looks back on the Utawarerumono series
Every saga must come to an end. Well, at least that's what the taglines tell us. Many franchises find that they always have room for one more sequel or side story, in a media landscape that never allows us to truly, fully let go. This is not the case for Utawarerumono, though. Advertisement. Keep scrolling for more Utawarerumono has become a strategy RPG/visual novel hybrid that draws on indigenous cultures and kemonomimi tradition to tell an epic, operatic story of cyclical love and loss.
"It’s my life’s work" - Suga Munemitsu on Utawarerumono, storytelling, Project Kizuna, and more
Every saga must come to an end. Well, at least that's what the taglines tell us. Many franchises find that they always have room for one more sequel or side story, in a media landscape that never allows us to truly, fully let go. This is not the case for Utawarerumono, though. Advertisement. Keep scrolling for more Utawarerumono has become a strategy RPG/visual novel hybrid that draws on indigenous cultures and kemonomimi tradition to tell an epic, operatic story of cyclical love and loss.
Normal: Ben Wheatley and Bob Odenkirk unleash chaos in small-town America
Wheatley’s gleefully violent comic thriller pairs Coen-esque absurdity with inventive action and sly commentary on US gun culture. 14 May 2026 Bob Odenkirk as Sheriff Ulysses Writer-producer Derek Kolstad and writer-star Bob Odenkirk, of the Nobody films (2021, 2025), evoke the Coen brothers: Odenkirk’s interim Sheriff is named Ulysses, echoing Ulysses Everett McGill, George Clooney’s character in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
Hope: a big, bold South Korean creature feature
Reviewed from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival On the outskirts of a small South Korean town called Hope, a group of hunters come across the badly mauled corpse of a cow. The bovine victim is like the crab eaten arm in Jaws (1974), the first clue that something is out there, a monster endangering the community. Local police chief Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min) shows up to prod the carcass and mutter grumpily at the hunters for having unregistered firearms.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: Jane Schoenbrun’s open-hearted slasher is playful about sex and cinema
Reviewed from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival Jane Schoenbrun’s new film opens with a body. Not a dead one – no, that comes next. What we first see, in an unsteady handheld glimpse, is the form of an on-set actor in a skin tone bodysuit, readying for the next scene of a film that exists within this one. Our gaze stumbles over to a crew member, who fits us with something then stares us dead in the eye.
‘All the Lovers in the Night’ Review: Sensitive and Restrained Kawakami Adaptation Shimmers Upon Inspection Original
As a professional proofreader, Fuyuko (Yukino Kishii) spends her days and nights finding and correcting mistakes. Others seem to find fault with her in turn — her point person, Hijiri (Misato Morita) questions why she never seems to leave her house, go out anywhere, doesn’t have a boyfriend, doesn’t seem to pursue casual sex like she does. But Fuyuko does, in fact, leave her house.
‘We Put All Of Our Effort, Sweat, And Tears Into Each And Every Film We Make’: Studio Ghibli Cinematographer Atsushi Okui On ‘Whisper Of The Heart’ (EXCLUSIVE)
AnimeFeature FilmInterviews Stay informed with free updates: Sign up to get our news digest — delivered directly to your inbox twice a week. At the close of Studio Ghibli’s singular romantic classic Whisper of the Heart, two young people embrace atop a hill as the sun rises, promising to marry one another. “Shizuku, I love you!” exclaims the boy. A Japanese rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” signals a new dawn, and the credits roll. You hope their love will last.
Nagi Notes – first-look review
Nagi Notes – first-look review Koji Fukada explores queerness across two generations in an understated artistic drama. Koji Fukada explores queerness across two generations in an understated artistic drama. Japanese auteur Koji Fukada is something of a chameleon.
The Devil Wears Prada 2: a glossy nostalgia trip
Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway return for a sequel torn between crowd-pleasing callbacks and anxious meditations on the decline of print media and the rise of AI. 29 April 2026 Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly and Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) Noughties nostalgia, the Hollywood trend which brought us Freakier Friday (2025) and less happily Happy Gilmore 2 (2025), shoots its biggest shot yet with Devil Wears Prada 2.
‘Sheep in the Box’ Expands Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Empathy to Humanoid Androids and the Architecture They Inhabit
Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to competition at Cannes with “Sheep in the Box,” a thorny yet sensitive meditation on the encroachment of AI on our ability to let go of those who are no longer with us. In the film, Otone (Ayase Haruka) and Kensuke (Yamamoto Daigo) adopt a humanoid android (Kuwaki Rimu) who resembles their late son, Kakeru. “To think about AI is to think about humanity,” Kore-eda tells Variety.
‘Sheep in the Box’ Expands Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Empathy to Humanoid Androids and the Architecture They Inhabit
Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to competition at Cannes with “Sheep in the Box,” a thorny yet sensitive meditation on the encroachment of AI on our ability to let go of those who are no longer with us. In the film, Otone (Ayase Haruka) and Kensuke (Yamamoto Daigo) adopt a humanoid android (Kuwaki Rimu) who resembles their late son, Kakeru. “To think about AI is to think about humanity,” Kore-eda tells Variety.
Letterboxd — Your life in film
Love is but an illusion. Allow me to overrate this a little, as I was into everything it was up to. A Cyrano/Romeo blend paired with the romantic playfulness of a Mouret. Forever fave Anaïs Demoustier gets a little Lena Dunham with it. And it's all packaged in the kind of romantic French champagne cinema that I thought we'd lost in the late '00s.
“A film of marvels if not quite a marvellous film”: Shrek reviewed in 2001
As Shrek returns to cinemas this week for its 25th anniversary, we revisit Kim Newman’s appraisal of its fairytale gags, zany characters and CGI innovations. From our July 2001 issue. 12 May 2026 Shrek (2001) The back-and-forth one-upmanship between Disney/Pixar and PDI/DreamWorks continues in Shrek. Two years ago, the rivals played scissors-paper-stone and both came out with insect-themed animations: Antz and A Bug’s Life.
THE TASTE OF TEA Interview: Katsuhito Ishii Talks Family Dramas and Funky Forest 2
A memorable slice of countryside surrealism, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl and Party 7 director Katsuhito Ishii’s ensemble family dramedy THE TASTE OF TEA premiered in Directors’ Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It’s a charmingly odd film – a cult classic made more so in recent years by Third Window Films (who released the film on Blu-ray in the UK).
Queer as Punk: powerful music doc takes viewers on the road with a radical Malaysian punk band
Documentarian Yihwen Chen’s film about charismatic punk band Shh… Diam! has the feel of a hang-out movie, but uses the group’s experiences to probe the increasingly hostile policies faced by queer Malaysians. 8 May 2026 Shh…Diam! The name of the self-proclaimed “75 per cent queer” Malaysian band Shh…Diam! translates as ‘Shut up!’, an order they refuse. They sing and strum about their lives, loves and community loudly and proudly at shows across the world.
Obsession: Curry Barker plays on the twisted ideas of the manosphere in a violent make-a-wish horror
Written and directed by Curry Barker, who gained attention with his micro-budget online prankster horror Milk and Serial (2024), Obsession gives chilling modern relevance to a classic tale of a wish gone wrong. As in films such as The Devil’s Hand (1943), The Monkey’s Paw (1948) or Tales from the Crypt (1972), to name just a few, the magical object grants the protagonist’s desire but in a twisted manner that leads to ruinous unforeseen consequences.
Curtain call: Lee Sang-il’s final thoughts on ‘Kokuho’
Lee Sang-il has gotten far too used to seeing me. “This is the last time, I swear!”, I assure as I sit down opposite him, mic in hand. He laughs heartily. Lee’s latest blockbuster, Kokuho, needs little introduction.
(Almost) All The Animation Heading To Cannes 2026
Feature FilmFestivalsShorts Stay informed with free updates: Sign up to get our news digest — delivered directly to your inbox twice a week. It’s that time of year once again: the Cannes Film Festival is back. This year, there’s a pleasingly fruitful crop of “Cannesimation” on offer across the Official Selection and various sidebars. We went through each section with a fine-toothed comb to highlight the variety of animation that awaits.
How did a film about kabuki break box-office records in Japan?
On a breezy morning in Cannes, director Lee Sang-il and screenwriter Satoko Okudera were sitting by the beach in the shade.
“My Best Ideas Come To Me On Walks”: Sho Miyake on Two Seasons, Two Strangers
Somewhere in a tower block, a Korean woman (Shim Eun-kyung) sits at a table in front of a blank piece of paper and pauses to think. After a moment, she begins to write. From her pencil, a scene emerges, and soon we are inside it. A young woman (Yuumi Kawai) awakens in the blue-hued backseat of a car and looks out upon the vivid, volcanic vistas of Kozushima Island––a short trip away from Tokyo by boat.
Interpreting Japanese Cinema: Monika Uchiyama
Monika Uchiyama interpreting for Sho Miyake at New Directors/New Films I’ve been on many Zoom calls with Monika Uchiyama over the years, but usually I’m talking through her, rather than with her. Monika Uchiyama is a Japanese-English interpreter working with Japanese cinema, contemporary art, and visual cultures.
“The hope is you’ll feel you’re in a continuous dream”: Gerald Fox on Kinaesthesia
In the small canon of filmmakers basing characters in their work on real teachers they once had, few examples may prove as flattering and charming as what BAFTA and Grierson award-winning documentarian Gerald Fox does with Vladimir ‘Vlada’ Petrić, his former film professor, in Kinaesthesia.
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