Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Interweaving scenes from three of Japanese author Yukio Mishima’s books, snippets of his early life and a ticking-clock buildup to the novelist’s final, suicidal act, Schrader’s brilliant, baroque biopic comes close to being the filmmaker’s crowning achievement. It’s fetishistic, lyrical, narcissistic and, at key moments, borderline berserk. In other words, the movie captures its subject to a tee.