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, […]
From Brooklyn, with Camp – Paul Bartel: The Life and Films by Stephen B. Armstrong
A Book Review by Irv Slifkin. Say the name and the image of an overweight, balding man with a neatly trimmed beard and unctuous demeanor comes to mind. In productions released by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures during the 1970s, Bartel seems to be there all the time, stealing scenes […]
Gazpacho with A Shot of Estrogen: Almodovar’s Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
By Kate Hearst. As statistics continue to demonstrate the persistent imbalance of women’s representation on screen,[1] Pedro Almodovar’s Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), beautifully restored by Criterion, is like a shot of pure estrogen. This screwball comedy, one of Almodovar’s best, packs a full range of […]
The Dark Tower: The Mighty King Has Fallen
August 5, 2017
By Elias Savada. The phrase “lump of coal” comes to mind after watching The Dark Tower, a lavish and most definitely lackluster CliffsNotes abridgment of a CliffsNotes adaptation of the Stephen King science fiction-fantasy-western magnum opus. The film prides itself by drop-kicking the prerequisite landscapes, people, myths, and phrases that abound […]
After Love: Verity and Banality
August 3, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. While watching After Love, a 2016 film about a Brussels couple in the midst of an emotionally evolving but physically inert separation, it’s often tempting to pick a side. Boris (Cédric Kahn) and Marie (Bérénice Bejo), partners of 15 years and parents of two young girls (sisters Jade […]
On the Road to Nirvana: Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry
August 2, 2017
By Elias Savada. “A naked virgin will illuminate your path with a blazing butterfly.” Yes, just the kind of fertile, fantastic utterance you would expect to hear in any luxuriant, eccentric Alejandro Jodorowsky film, especially in his ultra personal Endless Poetry (Poesía sin fin), and you’ll have to take the two-hour-plus […]
Bisarjan: Kaushik Ganguly on Unrequited Love
August 2, 2017
By Devapriya Sanyal and Melissa Webb. On the banks of the Padma lives Padma Halder, named after one of the bigger rivers flowing between the two countries of Bangladesh and India, divided by religion but sharing a common history. But Kaushik Ganguly’s new venture Bisorjon (or Bisarjan) chooses to look beyond that to explore the trope […]
Two California Raisins Walk Into a Sitcom: Landline
July 29, 2017
By Elias Savada. Three years ago, filmmaker Gillian Robespierre arrived at the Sundance Film Festival with her first feature, Obvious Child, a small, smart comedy-drama about pregnancy and abortion. It was a charming and perceptive rookie endeavor that made many critics’ Top Ten lists. It also unleashed a new star in […]