“Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers” is a blog on serials by Geoffrey Mayer, the author of Encyclopedia of American Film Serials (McFarland, 2017). At last they truly were face to face – the head of the great Yellow movement, and the man who fought on behalf of the entire white […]
Hope from the Past: Dziga Vertov: Life and Work (Volume 1: 1896-1921) by John MacKay
Tony Williams
April 10, 2019
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. In 1904, Lenin once wrote a monograph, “One Step Forward, two Steps Back” (1) that later appeared in Volume 7 of his Collected Works. Despite the relevance of an appropriate historical context, the name of a former Bolshevik leader will obviously raise hackles […]
Agnes Varda, 1928-2019
Christopher Sharrett
March 31, 2019
By Christopher Sharrett. I commented early this week on the ruthlessness of death. The occasion was my remembrance of Larry Cohen, a crucial figure of the American independent cinema. And now, we have word of the loss of Agnes Varda, a person I always thought pivotal to the European cinema. […]
Larry Cohen, 1936-2019
March 25, 2019
By Christopher Sharrett. Death is ruthless, but it seems to have been especially vicious lately. We have received word that Larry Cohen, the last of the great quartet of 60s-70s horror film innovators, has died. A statement about the full contributions of Cohen will be forthcoming in the print edition […]
The Uncanny Invades: Jordan Peele’s Us
Matthew Sorrento
March 22, 2019
By Matthew Sorrento. The most unfortunate aspect of Jordan Peele’s Get Out was its creator’s attempt at self-criticism. Some months after the film’s release, Peele accepted an offer from Reddit to respond to member theories on the film. In the video, he is welcoming and down-to-earth but swiftly dismisses a theory […]
“What Might Have Been”: The Magnificent Ambersons (Criterion Collection)
March 14, 2019
By Tony Williams. “Anybody who does things their own way while they’re working with a corporation is going to be problematic.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, audio-commentary, The Magnificent Ambersons Criterion Collection DVD When Criterion rises to the appropriate occasion of combining the best type of digital restoration with the most appropriate supplementary features, […]
Twilight of the Idol: Eastwood’s The Mule
James Slaymaker
February 21, 2019
By James Slaymaker. Like many late-period Eastwood films, The Mule is a revisionist genre piece with a pronounced self-reflexive streak. It only takes a glimpse at the poster to deduce that the figure of Eastwood – as a cinematic persona, as an actor, as an ailing body – will be […]
His Own Man – George Raft: The Man Who Would be Bogart by Stone Wallace
Tony Williams
February 12, 2019
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Enter George Raft groom cum chauffeur – He lurked hand and collar and hands in his pockets – Heavy with menace he takes the job of looking after someone who was sure to reach the film – Sticky end abroad – George Raft […]
The Eternal Dilemma: Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev (The Criterion Collection)
Tony Williams
January 29, 2019
By Tony Williams. After reviewing the disappointing Criterion Von Sternberg/Dietrich DVD Collection and noting the company’s inexplicable emphasis on popular films available elsewhere, it is a pleasure to see Criterion return to form with this three-disc version of Tarkovsky’s masterpiece. Subject of many fine critical books and articles, the film’s […]
Watering the Money Tree: Eugen Damaschin’s Beautiful Corruption (2018)
Brandon Konecny
January 24, 2019
By Brandon Konecny. In 2014, Moldova experienced what many observers called the “theft of the century.” One billion dollars disappeared from the country’s banking system. That’s nearly an eighth of its gross domestic product. Because some worried that the country’s already fragile economy would collapse, the government intervened. The banks […]