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;[…]
Teetering Teens: From the Edge of the City (1998)
Couldn’t they have just sent us a postcard? Following in the footsteps of those overrated paeans to teenage male angst, Hate and Trainspotting (with a dash of My Own Private[…]
Ozon Meets Fassbinder: Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000)
A stylized look at one of the colder corners of gay petit bourgeois life Water Drops on Burning Rocks was Fassbinder’s first play, written at age 19. Shelved and apparently[…]
Documentaries · Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
A Tired Bag of Tricks: Nick Broomfield’s Fetishes
Literal commodity fetishism in the far fringes of New York’s S&M scene In the mid-’70s, I spent some time in Los Angeles in the hetero s&m subculture. My best friend[…]
Experimental & Underground · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Anarchy in the UK: Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978) Revisited
Punks hail Britannia in their own peculiar way in this little-seen gem by the late queer auteur Jubilee (1978), Britain’s only decent punk film, still isn’t respected at home as[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Reviews
Truth and Consequences: Long Night’s Journey into Day (2000)
Post-apartheid South Africa’s rituals of admission and absolution Civilized societies, an oxymoronic phrase to some observers, choose to deal with the aftermath of large-scale violence in different ways. Sometimes there[…]
Asian · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
When Worlds Collide: Damien O’Donnell’s East Is East (1999)
Stereotypes and social critique spar in this culture-clash dramedy East Is East, based on Ayub Khan-Din’s play and directed by Damien O’Donnell, is a huge hit in England but has[…]
Asian · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Dis-Orientation: Japan from a Western Viewpoint: Topsy Turvy and The Mikado
If “Asian face” isn’t bad enough, how about names like Nanki-Poo and Yum Yum? Mike Leigh’s 1999 film Topsy-Turvy reenacts Gilbert and Sullivan’s staging of The Mikado, the 1885 comic[…]
Fall 2000’s Queer Films: From Paragraph 175 to Urbania
Gay werewolves, the Marquis De Sade, and a mean one-legged nun: The tortured queens and killer dykes of yesteryear make way for more rarified queer types this season. Queer and[…]
Historical & Epic · Reviews · SF & Fantasy · Writers & Critics
Robinson Crusoe and the Ethnic Sidekick
Who knew that Crusoe and Friday would be resurrected daily for service to western culture’s nefarious needs? While we are waiting for Dreamworks’ The Legend of Bagger Vance (starring Matt[…]
Book review: Celluloid Mavericks, by Greg Merritt
Celluloid Mavericks: A History of American Independent Film, by Greg Merritt. Thunder’s Mouth Press. Paperback. Suggested list price: $18.95. There are plenty of film histories, but not so many of[…]
Documentaries · Music & Musicals · Reviews
The Sex Pistols Wallow in The Filth and the Fury
Rock’s aging bad boys finally give it up The 25-year hissy fit between Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols continues to rage in Julian Temple’s engaging documentary about everybody’s favorite[…]
“Do You Speak Christian?” Dubbing and the Manipulation of the Cinematic Experience
European dubbing gives Hong Kong subtitling a run for its money in the Utter Weirdness department, according to this insider report Among the true lovers of cinema these days, there[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Smoke the Competition in Roberta
“Heaven rest us, I’m not asbestos” Roberta is one of the least known,1 and one of the very best, of the films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did together. It features some of[…]
Activist & Political · Reviews
Some Mother’s Son: Postcolonial, Postnational . . . Posthistorical?
A crash course in Anglo/Irish politics and America/Hollywood’s transformation of “the Troubles” for its own dubious purposes Part One The last decade has witnessed the emergence in Ireland of what[…]
Directors · Exploitation & Erotica · Interviews
“Not That I’m Horatio Alger”: Russ Meyer on The Supervixens
SuperRuss speaks! I interviewed Russ Meyer in 1974 at his office in Los Angeles. He answered the door himself, dressed in red jockey shorts with a strip of film dangling over his[…]
Noir · Reviews · Uncategorized
High Gallows: Revisiting Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past
Jacques Tourneur’s riveting 1947 film noir, usually ranked as one of the best of the genre, was adapted from Daniel Mainwaring’s evocatively titled novel Build My Gallows High (published under the name Geoffrey[…]
Fritz Lang’s M on DVD
A textbook classic restored to perfection courtesy of Criterion The roots of noir go back to German Expressionism, and there’s no movie that’s more German, Expressionist, or noir than Fritz Lang’s masterful –[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground
Wasted: Radical Filmmaker Ian Kerkhof in Brief
Western Civ gets a brutal debunking courtesy of this South African expat auteur The titles of Ian Kerkhof’s films are both seduction and warning about what to expect from the[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Experimental & Underground · LGBT & Queer
Raging and Flaming: Jack Smith in Retrospect
New York’s pioneering campmeister’s flame still sears Not long ago, Fran Lebowitz invoked the sad-comic image of a sailor disembarking in New York, heading to Times Square, and experiencing total[…]
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