By Elias Savada. In a lovely, earth-toned Long Island beach house, Walter Lancaster (Jon Hamm) comes and goes in rather disconcerting fashion. He doesn’t use the door or walk in from another room. He’s just…there. He doesn’t eat much, either. In fact, nothing at all. Then again, he’s just a […]
The Cinematic Culture of Conspicuous Consumption – When Knighthood was in Flower (1922)
By Tony Williams. Like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s recently released Endless Poetry (2016) and Samantha Fuller’s tribute to her late father A Fuller Life (2013), the DVD restoration of one of Marion Davies’s most notable films is indebted to those legion of people who have contributed via Kickstarter. Unlike Jodorowsky’s Twitter-funded film, […]
I Did…You Shouldn’t: I Do…Until I Don’t
By Elias Savada. There are problems a-plenty in Vero Beach, Florida, and after watching them dribble forth in the lame ensemble comedy I Do…Until I Don’t, I feel that this piece of sunshiny beach would be the last place on earth I’d want to live. While Florida does have a […]
The Trip to Spain: A Road Best Not Taken
August 21, 2017
By Elias Savada. Always light-hearted and entertaining, the deadpan road films featuring the improvisation talents of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have christened their third voyage, The Trip to Spain, after the duo had previously traipsed through Northern England and Italy. This casual excursion, like previous ones, offers up a multitude […]
On “Symbolic Annihilation”: Killing Off the Lesbians by Liz Millward, Janice G. Dodd, and Irene Fubara-Manuel
August 21, 2017
A Book Review by Gary M. Kramer. Killing Off the Lesbians by Liz Millward, Janice G. Dodd and Irene Fubara-Manuel (McFarland, 2017) addresses the unfortunate trope in film and television in which women who love women are killed off (or in some cases sacrifice themselves for their lovers). The authors, all academics, […]
Modes of Viewing and Censoring – The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11 by Matt Sienkiewicz
A Book Review by Ipek A. Celik Rappas. The Other Air Force explores post-9/11 US investments in Middle Eastern broadcasting initiatives especially in places of conflict and economic uncertainty. Matt Sienkiewicz’s The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11 (Rutgers, 2016) is based on fieldwork (interviews with […]
Ham on Die, with a Side of Cupcakes and Beer: The Dismembered
By Elias Savada. Taking a film out of distribution purgatory, Garagehouse Pictures is the final link in a rescue involving an obscure 1962 horror comedy relic called The Dismembered, now seeing the light of day courtesy of a region-free Blu-ray edition. This brief, 65-minute heist/haunted house feature was made by […]
20 Rms, Expanding Views: Dave Made a Maze
August 15, 2017
By Elias Savada. Is there any way to regain whatever amount of dignity an actor has gained in his career after he’s played a penis? Funny guy Nick Thune, who played a live action prick in 2014’s penile comedy Bad Johnson, thinks so. With the titular role in Dave Made a […]
Rebelling in the Right Direction: Midnight Movie Monographs’ Martin by Jez Winship and Theatre of Blood by John Llewellyn Probert
August 12, 2017
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Before the successful re-launching of We Are the Martians, editor Neil Snowdon initiated a new series by the same company PS Publishing, namely Midnight Movie Monographs, with these two examples as opening salvos. The intention of this new series is to birth a “disreputable […]
As Offbeat As Fancher: Escapes
August 11, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. Escapes, a new documentary from director Michael Almereyda and executive producer Wes Anderson, begins with Philip K. Dick’s ruminations on “counterfeit worlds…Semi-real worlds as well as deranged private worlds, inhabited often by just one person.” The acclaimed author’s role in the movie Almereyda develops is an important one, […]