Unmistakably Ulmer: The Pirates of Capri
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[…]
Documentaries · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Too Haute to Handle: Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959)
The best jazz documentary just got better Turn a fashion photographer loose on the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, and what do you get? Lots of artsy-fartsy shots of sea,[…]
The Boys Deliver: Cesc Gay’s Nico and Dani on DVD
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[…]
Asian · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
The Boys of Bollywood: Kaizad Gustad’s Bombay Boys
These boys mix it up, sort of, in India’s first gay indie Writer-director Kaizad Gustad’s Bombay Boys (1998) is, of course, not the first Indian film to deal “seriously” with[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
Decadence AIP Style: Cy Endfield’s De Sade (1969)
“No actual fucking!” as the author says, but there are plenty of other pleasures in this lurid ’60s rarity whose authorship remains contested. American International Picture’s De Sade (starring Keir[…]
Actors & Personalities · Writers & Critics
Manhattan to America: Drop Dead! The New Yorker Takes a Slap at Julia Roberts
“The more he writes about Julia, the madder Tony gets.” One thing the American people do not need in their lives is more stress. They do not need some tea-sipping,[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Horror · Pre-Code · Reviews
Todd Browning’s Freaks (1932): Production Notes and Analysis
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[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Get Their Feet Wet in Follow the Fleet
There may be trouble ahead.” Follow the Fleet is perhaps the most problematic film in the Astaire/Rogers series. It has an excruciatingly bad plot; it has a singularly lame performance[…]
Crime · Reviews · Thrillers & Action
Average Nobodies: The Dark Knights of Goodfellas
Scorsese’s wiseguy gangsters as modern-day knights errant In medieval times there were no countries and few strong kings. Monks hid in fortress monasteries while marauding knights brutalized the peasants. Most[…]
Exploitation & Erotica · Horror
“They Ate His Genitals!” A Sampling of European Sex and Horror Films
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[…]
A Brief Historical Tour of the Hong Kong Martial Arts Film
This article appeared originally in the all-Hong Kong issue of Bright Lights #13 (1994). Based on research by Sek Kei. Edited, with additional material, by Rolanda Chu and Grant Foerster[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Hit Their Highest Peak in Top Hat
What’s black and white and simply reeks with class? Top Hat is the apotheosis of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It has five dances, a total they matched in only[…]
Asian · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Swordsman II and The East Is Red: The “Hong Kong Film,” Entertainment, and Gender
Two HK classics blur – make that erase – gender boundaries with thrilling results Films from Hong Kong have emerged to mainstream non–Chinese-speaking film audiences in the United States. Last[…]
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[…]
Actors & Personalities · Asian · Interviews
An Evening with Jackie Chan: Interview and Profile
This article appeared originally in the all-Hong Kong issue of Bright Lights #13 (1994). * * * Jackie spills his guts – verbally, this time I first met Jackie Chan in 1980,[…]
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 · Directors · Interviews
Interview with John Woo
This article appeared originally in the all-Hong Kong issue of Bright Lights #13 (1994). * * * Hong Kong’s master of balletic blood ‘n bulletplay speaks John Woo, one of[…]
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[…]
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