This leaves the provocateur director herself in her role as catalyst for the mayhem to follow as the ultimate filmic presence wreaking its influence on others. Assigned only the title[…]
Category: Genres
Directors · Drama · DVD & Blu-ray · Westerns
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: Revisiting Sam Peckinpah’s Unrealized Western on Criterion
Action scenes are what a summer audience wants, but in Pat Garrett the shootouts become episodic and lack the ratcheting up of tension, followed by its release at the climactic[…]
Drama · French Cinema · Uncategorized · Writers & Critics
Bresson, Schrader, and the Fool: Transcendental and Materialist Interpretations in the Films of Robert Bresson
I think the reason Bresson’s films resist singular interpretations is that they are composed of multiple, overlapping perspectives. His films contain elements of humanism, nihilism, absurdism, existentialism, transcendentalism, and numerous[…]
Iranian Cinema · Women in Film
Revolutionary Women in Two Iranian Films: On The Hidden Half (2001) and The House Is Black (1963)
Fereshteh: Sometimes I want to put on make-up, or wear beautiful dresses, or fall in love. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m living in a small can,[…]
Books · Directors · Women in Film · Writers & Critics
Book Review: Carrie Courogen, Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius
Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius. St. Martin’s Press, 2024, 400pp., $30.00. * * * Published on the heels of Mark Harris’s[…]
Crime · Noir · Photo Essays
Barflies and Hot Lies: The Fifties B-Girl and Fritz Lang’s Subversive Politics in The Big Heat
Debby refuses to be a passive victim of Vince Stone’s violence, fighting back and branding his face with boiling coffee as revenge. But while she’s no helpless victim, Lang’s ending[…]
Crime · Drama · Neo-Noir · Women in Film
“Oh, look”: From Male-Wary Gaze to Objectifying Female Gaze in Gone Girl
“Oh, look. He’s being a good guy, so everybody can see him being a good guy.” – Officer James Gilpin observing Nick Dunne in Gone Girl (2014) There are many[…]
To Live and Die in LA (1985) and the Thrill-Seeking Wasteland of Reagan’s America
However, while other filmmakers got caught up in the heady, cocaine rush of the 1980s, Friedkin was harder to convince. When we dig a little deeper into his Los Angeles,[…]
Drama · Politics · Thrillers & Action
The Imperial Presidency after Trump v. United States: On the 30th Anniversary of Clear and Present Danger
On its 30th anniversary, it also feels remarkably relevant in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for exercising “core” executive[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground · Exploitation & Erotica · Franchises & Series · Horror · Indies · Women in Film
Spectacles of Property and Perversion: Todd Jason Cook and the Lisa’s Nightmares Series
Just as his characters presume safety and security in their home space, so too does his audience approach each title with a sense of comfort through repeat exposures. The unseating[…]
Activist & Political · Class System · Crime · Essays · Franchises & Series · Myth and Archetype · Outsiders · Politics · SF & Fantasy · Societal Trends · Superheroes
Don’t Be Weird: Heroes, Villains, and the Reinforcement of Class Distinctions in Modern Blockbusters
If you want to make a popular blockbuster, it better be about the right kind of person – and the right kind of person isn’t a loser. A decade ago,[…]
Comedy · Drama · Interviews · Picaresque · Producers & Studios
The Sweet East’s Online Odyssey: In Conversation with Palme d’Or-Winning Producer Alex Coco
A conversation with Palme d’Or-winning producer Alex Coco * * * In Sean Price William’s The Sweet East, we are told “Everything Will Happen,” which may be a warning to[…]
Murder by Contract: The Same as Any Business
The film is intent on the present, an element of the fifties go-getter types and the emergence of the organization man. The stress on “man” comes during post-World War II[…]
Horror · Indies · Mental Illness · Sex & Relationships · SF & Fantasy
Beauty, Violence, Boredom: Santa Sangre (Jodorowsky, 1989)
It is not that there is something wrong with Jodorowsky’s perseveration on sex and violence per se; it is that he is not saying anything about it. It is an[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Mondo Culture · SF & Fantasy · Superheroes · Thrillers & Action
Gay E.T., Muslim Dracula, Kung Fu Star Wars: An Overview of Turksploitation
Turkish exploitation movies are one of the most elusive gold mines of film history. * * * Currently, no exclusive history of Turksploitation cinema exists in print. The most exhaustive[…]
Counterculture · Indies · LGBT & Queer · Sex & Relationships
Hustler White (1996): Fashion, Fetish, and the Radical Potential of Pornography
Portrait of Rick Castro by Nadine Dinter, used with permission of the photographer Rick Castro talks to Tony Conn about his film Hustler White, his varied career, and his[…]
Good Grief: Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers
“Solving” the film’s psychological mysteries – understanding how Adam’s ghosts arise from his grief – is the film’s central interpretive demand, and one of its pleasures. It’s the film’s conclusion[…]
Drama · Eco · Games & Gaming · Literature and Film · SF & Fantasy · War
Villeneuve’s Dune, Warhammer 40K, and the Next Frontier of Space Operas
The everyday hero is a foreign concept in a universe where obscure machinations corrode a society that blindly follows in the hopes of stability and lasting glory. * * *[…]
Drama · Eco · Eco-horror · Horror · Urban Conflict
Garbageman: C.H.U.D. at 40
On the face of it, C.H.U.D. might look like a superficial protest against this schema – like a trite version of David and Goliath wherein the tenacity of a neighbourhood[…]
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