Joe Bendel

Joe Bendel
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Based in New York, Joe Bendel has reviewed film, television, music, and theater for nineteen years, in print and online. In addition to his site, J.B. Spins, he frequently contributes reviews to The Epoch Times, specializing in mystery/thriller series, documentaries, and Asian cinema. As a critic he has attended in-person international film festivals, including Sundance, Slamdance, Fantasia, and the New York Film Festival, as officially accredited press. He has also written for Nightfire, Libertas Film Magazine, and Signal to Noise (the dearly departed experimental music print magazine). He has over twenty-five years of experience in the book publishing industry and has taught film and music survey courses at NYU’s School of Continuing Studies. Bendel also coordinated the Jazz Foundation of America’s instrument donation drive for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He is a graduate of Wittenberg University and the University of Denver Publishing Institute.
Based in New York, Joe Bendel has reviewed film, television, music, and theater for nineteen years, in print and online. In addition to his site, J.B. Spins, he frequently contributes reviews to The Epoch Times, specializing in mystery/thriller series, documentaries, and Asian cinema. As a critic he has attended in-person international film festivals, including Sundance, Slamdance, Fantasia, and the New York Film Festival, as officially accredited press. He has also written for Nightfire, Libertas Film Magazine, and Signal to Noise (the dearly departed experimental music print magazine). He has over twenty-five years of experience in the book publishing industry and has taught film and music survey courses at NYU’s School of Continuing Studies. Bendel also coordinated the Jazz Foundation of America’s instrument donation drive for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He is a graduate of Wittenberg University and the University of Denver Publishing Institute.

Japan Cuts / Retake : Nakano Taps Into Universal Teen Attitudes & Neuroses

©Courtesy of Japan Cuts  There is less parental supervision in this film than you see in an average John Hughes movie. Perhaps as a result, these teens hardly spend any time working or studying during their summer break—maybe a little, but not a lot. However, they are not idle slackers. In fact, they keep quite…

Japan Cuts : Kubi / It’s an Iron-Clad Guarantee the Audience Will Never be Bored

©Courtesy of Japan Cuts  In Takeshi Kitano’s gangster movies, a lot of fingers get chopped. For this samurai historical epic, he steps up to head-chopping. To be fair, Kitano’s yakuza probably lopped off a few heads of their own, but during Japan’s Sengoku Era, collecting severed heads was the preferred method of proving the death…

Japan Cuts Animated Shorts: Bottle George & Nezumikozo Jirokichi

©Courtesy of Japan Cuts The compulsions of two hard-living characters reshape the worlds around them in their respective animated shorts. This produces artistic triumph in one case and family tragedy in the other. Yet, Anime fans will be duly impressed by both short films’ artistry and pedigrees. Despite their lengths, Bottle George, from Daisuke “Dice”…

Japan Cuts : Look Back is Brutally Poignant, But Emotionally Complex

Manga publishing is a ruthlessly numbers-driven business. Success is mostly dependent on sales and reader popularity polls. Nevertheless, it attracts artistic young people, who often keenly sensitive, somewhat neurotic, and even sometimes painfully shy. Those terms certainly describe either Ayumu Fujino or her middle school rival “Kyomoto the Truant.” Several apply to them both. Somehow,…

A Man of Reason (Who is No Stranger to Action)

©Epic Pictures  Su-hyuk broods hard, very much like the other titular men in “man” films, like Man on Fire (either of them) and The Man from Nowhere. He too is a jaded man of action, who must rescue an innocent child from a powerful criminal organization. After ten years in prison, Su-hyuk has no intention…

The Imaginary : A Former Ghibli Animator Yoshiyuki Momose Celebrates the Power of Imagination

@Courtesy of Studio Ponoc/Netlfix Japanese anime filmmakers have a bizarrely fantastic track record translating British young adult fantasies for the big screen. Studio Ghibli notably adapted Mary Norton’s The Borrowers (as The Secret World of Arrietty), Joan G. Robinson’s When Marnie Was There, and Diana Wynn Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle (loosely, but it still counts),…

Federer: Twelve Final Days / It Hits All the Right Nostalgic Notes and a Very Effective “Commercial” for Professional Tennis

Even if you won fifteen Grand Slam tournaments and spent a record 237-straight weeks as the #1 ranked player on the ATP tour, knee injuries are a tricky business to bounce back from. Swiss tennis champion Roger Federer always assumed any surgery would spell the beginning of the end of his career—and he ruefully admits…

Presumed Innocent Review : An Inconsistent Legal Thriller that Needed a Firmer Editorial Hand

In 1987, Scott Turow kicked off the legal thriller craze with his surprise bestselling novel Presumed Innocent, which still boasts one of the most famous twist endings since Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Fans will happily view Apple TV+’s new series adaptation, even though they have already read the novel and seen Alan…

Cottontail: A Japanese-British Co-Production, Starring Lily Franky

©Courtesy of Longride/Level 33 Entertainment  England’s Lake District has a rich literary history, often involving bunny rabbits. Richard Adams’ Watership Down was set in the area, but for Kenzaburo Oshima’s wife Akiko, the Beatrix Potter connection was much more important. Her love of Peter Cottontail attracted her to Lake Windermere in her youthful student days….

Jim Henson Idea Man, on Disney+

©Courtesy of Disney+ Jim Henson must be the most recognizable puppeteer in American pop culture history. Of course, his Muppets are even more famous. Initially, he wanted to work in the new medium of television and puppetry turned out to be a convenient entry point. As fans know, he would eventually create original creatures for…