By Amy R Handler. The strangeness and beauty of Famke Janssen’s first feature film, Bringing Up Bobby (2011) is that it mimics “real life,” at the same time that it exposes the artistry of cinema. This filmmaking-wizardry allows unsuspecting viewers to misconstrue Bobby as comic relief, when it is really, […]
Dutch Horror Minimalism: Claustrofobia
By Cleaver Patterson. Just when you’d given up hope of ever feeling discomfort in the cinema again, along comes something which reaffirms your faith in the art of tense and edgy film. The Dutch thriller Claustrofobia (2011) is one such exercise. The debut from director Bobby Boermans, starring Carolien Spoor, […]
Far from Frodo: Elijah Wood in Maniac
By Cleaver Patterson. The acting profession is littered with the half forgotten careers of stars who, in order to escape the roles which made their names (often in some child-friendly blockbuster), take on shocking or controversial parts to prove that they aren’t just a one trick (or one franchise) pony. Some like […]
The Future Catches Up With The Past: Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. “Targets are people…and you could be one of them!” (Tagline for Targets) Peter Bogdanovich got his start as a critic and historian, conducting interviews with some of cinema’s most illustrious directors in their twilight years, which were published first in a variety of books and magazines, […]
Rolling Thunder and the Poverty of the Vietnam Cinema
By Christopher Sharrett. I recently happened upon a very good Studio Canal DVD of the John Flynn/Paul Schrader film Rolling Thunder (1977). The film, of some distinction at least as a symptom of profound problems within US ideology in the 70s, has always been to me, in Norman Mailer’s words, […]
All Aboard The Titfield Thunderbolt
By Cleaver Patterson. By the mid 1950’s Ealing Studios, that great purveyor of British cinematic whimsy, was running out of steam. Though this period saw them release such iconic titles as The Ladykillers (1955), their heyday of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s in terms of output (between 1936 and […]
Sleep Tight : First-Rate Old-School Chiller
By Cleaver Patterson. In these days of run-of-the-mill schlockfests it appears Southern Europe is fast becoming the place to go for cutting edge horror. Hollywood seems stuck in the belief that the teenage slasher genre is still alive and well, whilst Britain thinks that featuring television comics such as Ross […]
Gangster Squad, Tearing Through Tradition
By Matthew Sorrento. Gangster Squad begins with Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), the King of Los Angeles, showing a different kind of power, as he boxes while another character describes him in voice over. Even casual viewers of recent crime films recognize the voice to be Josh Brolin’s, playing an L.A. […]
The Philosophy of the Double Bill (Or, How To Stop Worrying and Love Technology)
By Sarah Myles. The perfect double bill is an elusive, mythical thing. A single entertainment event comprised of two unique artistic expressions. A tradition steeped in social history and Hollywood controversy, the evolution of which has shaped our cinema trips for decades and shapes our home-cinema experiences today. First becoming […]
Texas Chainsaw 3D adds no new dimension to Leatherface saga
By Cleaver Patterson. There was a time when the inclusion of 3D in a film title suggested a degree of novel originality. Unfortunately those days are long past with the process now used in horror films to produce little more than substandard cliché shocks, beggaring the question why Texas Chainsaw […]