Absurdism · Activist & Political · Counterculture · Crime · Experimental & Underground · Fairy Tale · Politics · Writers & Critics
Abstract Interposing characters, dialogue, and symbols from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland into a contemporary political scenario – the Chicago 7 trial – Kerry Feltham’s experimental film Chicago 70 provides[…]
Future events in political campaigns came to be much worse than the events of late 1987 proved to be. One might be inclined to scoff at Gary Hart’s response given[…]
Cults · Horror · Religion & Spirituality · War
Rosemary’s Baby has been seen as eerily prescient, predictive, but in fact it looked back; Polanski already knew evil and horror, and specifically the horror of the giant covens of[…]
Documentaries · Ethnographic · Indigenous
As a hunter, Nanook does more than simply violently kill animals. He is depicted as a master of his environment, forcing it (and the animals he hunts) to conform to[…]
Documentaries · Native Americans · War
Thankfully, Lusztig resists the temptation to make old film segments salacious. There are no blooming mushroom clouds, no charred devastation. Richand is a movie about a small town with a[…]
Documentaries · Drama · Family
The fourth wall is broken in the first moments of filming, and the opening scene sets up the dynamic between the filmmaker and the filmed. From there on out, Fredriksson[…]
Absurdism · Experimental & Underground · Indies
The Forbidden Zone was made simultaneously to David Lynch’s Eraserhead, and they indicate, even from the fringes of California filmmaking, a coming zeitgeist, soundings of something that wed the violence[…]
What makes Judith Hearne such a compelling portrait of female alcoholism is the novel and film’s attention to the many factors that drive Judith’s drinking – the initial encouragement of[…]
Directors · Drama · Family · Writers & Critics
Right before the unnerving camping incident, Sammy has been told by his uncle Boris, who once tamed lions used in movies, that art is a dangerous undertaking and that it[…]
There is the take on Cinderella where we ask our heroine to wait out her terrible circumstances, a moral that encourages us to work all day according to the clock[…]
Books · Directors · Writers & Critics
It would be easy – and fun – to focus entirely on the good and to co-sign his [Tarantino’s] praise for films that are also favorites of mine such as[…]
African American · Animals · Drama · Hollywood · Surrealism
In this instance, the look is also a threat to those doing the looking. The act of seeing can be damaging not only to the target but also to the[…]
Drama · LGBT & Queer · Men & Masculinity · Westerns
Though the possible motivations behind Ford’s deep admiration for James have been a topic of debate since the film’s release, little attention, unfortunately, has been paid to the shared relationship[…]
Absurdism · DIY · Experimental & Underground · Horror
“I felt there was a dead end to the kind of films I was making. . . . I was losing sight of reason in favor of result and so[…]
Counterculture · Dialogue · Drama · Romance
The subsequent dialogue between the two films developed after much negotiation and cajoling. They were inclined to be hostile to the other. I tried to inform them about their common[…]
If Curtis Harrington had not had the ruined mall of hell unveiled to the world in 1905 as Venice of America as a setting for his occult fable, he might[…]
Drama · Dreams · Essays · French Cinema
to Lyssa You either go mad, or you learn about metaphors. – Allie Light * * * fou (masculine): crazy, mad, madman; see l’amour fou folle (feminine): crazy, mad, madwoman;[…]
Absurdism · Comedy · Drama · Mystery
Whereas the Dude is a wholly passive protagonist, thrown begrudgingly into the chaos of conspiracy by the force of pure coincidence and designs of other, more motivated actors, Under the[…]
Absurdism · Drama · Essays · Media · Philosophy · SF & Fantasy
“Where’s the TV Guide?” – last line of the film * * * Introduction Truman Burbank exits the only world he knows. We – the television audience in the film,[…]
Billy Wilder (1906-2002) died on March 27, age 95. We honor him by reposting Jason Carpenter’s fine analysis of the master’s work, first published in Bright Lights in 2016. *[…]
