Gary Morris founded Bright Lights Film Journal as a print publication in 1974; it became a web-only magazine in 1996. He is the author of the monograph Roger Corman (Twayne Publishers, 1985) and the editor of Action! Interviews with Directors from Classical Hollywood to Contemporary Iran (Anthem Press, 2009). Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
A bumper crop of docs scale the heights and trawl the depths of queer culture “There was nothing to come out to. We never heard the word homosexual. The media[…]
Documentaries · Exploitation & Erotica
Livin’ large with the Hung One Porn has had its share of superstars, but none were bigger – in every sense – than John Holmes. This “little boy with a[…]
Documentaries · Music & Musicals · Reviews
The illustrious history of the king of the hepcats (and the queen of deadpan) Louis Prima and his wife Keely Smith were a staple of ’50s and ’60s variety TV,[…]
“Some of the mise-en-scene has a suffocating beauty, as in the bravura marriage sequence where the screen is clogged to the breaking point with images – a strategy that shows[…]
Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, by Mick LaSalle. Thomas Dunne Books, 279 pages, $24.95. While hardly a household word, even among some cinephiles, pre-Code cinema — those “naughty” Hollywood[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground
Abigail Child’s compulsive visual collages are visual and aural legerdemain Since the 1970s, experimental filmmaker and poet Abigail Child has been engaged in a kind of cultural archaeology. Unearthing found[…]
Some bright lights and a few dim bulbs distinguish this year’s preeminent indie showcase Now in its third year, the IndieFest (formally known as the San Francisco Independent Film Festival)[…]
Louis Hayward in tights! Edgar Ulmer’s reputation rests largely on a series of no-budget, claustrophobic noirs and thrillers like Strange Illusion, Bluebeard, and of course Detour. But this director was[…]
A beachhouse, no parents, and the fleeting pleasures of “krampach” Coming-of-age dramas are dicey material at best, ever in danger of succumbing to John Hughes-style clichés about bourgeois brats, or[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Horror · Pre-Code · Reviews
The normals are the real freaks in this still gut-wrenching horror classic Production Notes In mid-1931, MGM production head Irving Thalberg summoned scenarist Willis Goldbeck to tell him the time[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Horror
It wasn’t long ago that the idea of seeing a Lucio Fulci film outside its natural habitat of the urban grindhouse or the obscure home video would have been too[…]
Asian · Historical & Epic · Reviews
A 19-year-old newcomer and a middle-aged veteran steal the show from two legends of Hong Kong cinema Director Ang Lee would not be an obvious first choice to direct a[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
A grim intersection of homophobia and hysteria ruins two men’s lives America’s criminal justice system has been under increasing attack in the past few years, and it’s hardly surprising. The[…]
The latest attempt at a “gay crossover date movie” almost succeeds Just One Time will trigger déjà vu in some viewers. This feature-length comedy is an expanded version of a popular[…]
Asian · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Like the macho dancers it portrays, this uneasy mix of melodrama and realism never quite gets it up With Macho Dancer (1988), the late Filipino director Lino Brocka (1940-1991) pioneered a[…]
Soldier by day, tranny slut by night Giorgios Katakouzinos’s 1982 feature Angel (Aggelos) is one of the most acclaimed and popular Greek films ever, allegedly having been seen by one Greek[…]
A pristine transfer of one of the Bard’s most gothic – and gayest, in Olivier’s hands – works Criterion is continuing its mining of the wonderfully rich Janus film catalog[…]
Wendy Hiller triumphs in the fine 1938 film of Shaw’s masterpiece The plays of George Bernard Shaw have long been a cinema staple. Works like Caesar and Cleopatra, Saint Joan, Major[…]
Is Tom Neal’s Al Roberts really Fate’s Plaything or just the ultimate pushy bottom? Edgar G. Ulmer is one of the more provocative auteurs in movie history. His provenance is impeccable[…]
Schoolboys on strike, farting contests, and a mysteriously acquired washer make up the world of this Japanese classic Of the three great directors of classical Japanese cinema, Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) remains[…]
