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. […]
For the Love of a Gangster: Ash is the Purest White
Yun-hua Chen
March 29, 2019
By Yun-hua Chen. Jia Zhangke’s latest, Ash is the Purest White, three years after his previous film Mountains May Depart (2015) which ambitiously spans from 1999 till futuristic 2025 and journeys from Fengyang in Shanxi Province to Perth in Australia, continues with his incessant probing of how China changes but […]
Filling a Gap: The Music of Charlie Chaplin by Jim Lochner
John Fawell
March 28, 2019
A Book Review by John Fawell. I’ve always been somewhat surprised by the amount of critical attention paid to Charlie Chaplin’s sound films, considering they represent, for the most part, his comedic talents in decline and his frustrated efforts to contend with a medium essentially hostile to his genius for […]
Fessenden Meets a Brooklyn Frankenstein: Depraved
March 28, 2019
By Elias Savada. Larry Fessenden has plenty of fans. A versatile producer, director, writer, editor, cinematographer, and actor in dozens of low-budget flicks, he’s left his mark for more than two decades on the horror genre. Since he’s heavily influenced by the classic Universal monsters, it is not surprising that his […]
Probing Bannon: Alison Klayman and Marie Therese Guirgis on The Brink
Elias Savada
March 27, 2019
By Elias Savada. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco is just 9 blocks east of the White House, the work place of Stephen K. Bannon, a friend and strategist of the Commander in-Chief until his banishment from official duties in 2017. He still haunts the Capitol Hill neighborhood where he lives and […]
“Movies No Genre Wants to Own Up to” – Blood Hunger: The Films of José Larraz (Arrow Video)
Rod Lott
March 26, 2019
By Rod Lott. Death aside, it’s a good time to be José Ramón Larraz. The Spanish director finally gets his due, a quarter-century after Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs made the case for it in their seminal book, Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Movies, 1956-1984. The seeds they planted […]
Wildlife: Family in the Dark
Christopher Sharrett
March 25, 2019
By Christopher Sharrett. Among the few films that impressed me last season was Paul Dano’s first film as director, Wildlife, based on a book (which I have not read) by Richard Ford. The film received some applause when it opened, then vanished, to be covered over by the rubbish […]
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 […]
Film Scratches: Exuberant Nihilism – Nihelious (2017)
March 23, 2019
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. In the deliriously kitschy world of Nihelious, a 10 and a half minute animated look at love and marriage […]
Film Scratches: Suspending the Rules – Poetry of Dreams (2017)
March 23, 2019
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. Poetry of Dreams is a short film, just over two minutes long, by Hayk Matevosyan, an Armenian-born artist based […]