The Fabulous Baker Boys Explains Why There’s No People Like Show People
Damn we’re good. With the single exception of biting the heads off of rats, lounge acts are the lowest form of show business. As such, they exert a perverse fascination[…]
Category: Reviews
A Better Tomorrow? American Masochism and Hong Kong Action Films
This article appeared originally in the all-Hong Kong issue of Bright Lights #13 (1994). * * * Among their thrills, Woo’s homoerotic bullet ballets offered welcome distraction from 1997’s doomsday[…]
Asian · Historical & Epic · Reviews
Beautiful Beast: Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
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
Blind Spot: Nonny de la Pena’s The Jaundiced Eye (1999)
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[…]
Turnabout: Lane Janger’s Just One Time (1997)
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
Softcore Soap: Mel Chionglo’s Burlesk King (1999)
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[…]
Poor Queen: Giorgios Katakouzinos’s Angel (1982)
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[…]
Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) on DVD
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[…]
Anthony Asquith’s Pygmalion (1938) on DVD
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[…]
Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour on DVD
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[…]
Ozu’s Good Morning on DVD
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[…]
Fellini’s Variety Lights on DVD
A tacky theatrical troupe finds fun and romance – and occasionally a paycheck – on the road in Fellini’s classic Variety Lights (1950) is a rarity in the career of Federico[…]
Masterpieces of Japanese Silent Cinema on DVD-ROM
Japanese silent films are no longer silent in this fabulous – and expensive – DVD-ROM Western interest in Japanese film falls mainly into three realms: the Godzilla movies and their endless cheesy[…]
Chabrol, Losey, Antonioni: Three Classic Eurofilms: Les Bonnes Femmes, Eva, Il Grido on DVD
“La dolce vita” is more bitter than sweet in these razor-sharp rarities DVD has become the preeminent forum for high-art cinema on video, and the trend shows no sign of[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground · Reviews
A Black Silence Almost as Violent as Laughter: Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy
The arthouse staple gets a gorgeous makeover in this DVD set brimming with extras Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) has been called the most versatile artist of the twentieth century, and in[…]
Three Early Kurosawas: Drunken Angel, Scandal, I Live in Fear
Tubercular yakuza, scandalous artists, and postwar paranoids duke it out with the world For a variety of reasons, Western audiences have enshrined Kurosawa as the preferred director of Japan’s golden[…]
“Are You Sure?” Edgar G. Ulmer’s Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957)
Monsters are bad enough, but how about all those relatives? For cinema, the postwar period – particularly the 1950s when atomic consciousness became a permanent part of America’s psychic landscape[…]
“No Man Is a Saint”: Douglas Sirk’s A Scandal in Paris (1946)
“What distinguishes A Scandal in Paris is its additional air of evanescence, as if the Old Europe of charming woodland merry-go-rounds and dowagers in castles and romantic criminals was now a[…]
LGBT & Queer · Reviews · SF & Fantasy
The Nightmare in the Fairy Tale: Francois Ozon’s Criminal Lovers (1999)
A modern-day Hansel and Gretel take on love, sex, and death with rapturous results A recent selection at the 24th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, François Ozon’s[…]
Burning Love: Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996)
The first of the Canadian-Indian auteur’s controversial attacks on the privileges of patriarchy Fire is a fascinating anomaly. It’s an Indian feature written and directed by a woman, Deepa Mehta;[…]
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