By Areum Jeong. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, South Korea’s first found-footage horror film, directed by Bum-shik Jung, is a low-budget film that scored at the box-office and was a hit with critics. It was the first attempt in South Korea at combining the found-footage technique with the setting of YouTube live streaming. The film […]
The Science of Experimental Film – Lessons in Perception: The Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist by Paul Taberham
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. For many, the term “avant-garde” is synonymous with pretension: a sub-subgenre that revels in its impenetrability and niche appeal. One of Paul Taberham’s overarching goals in Lessons in Perception: The Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist (Berghan Books, 2018) is to negate this misconception; experimental filmmakers […]
The Films of Jess Franco: Cinema on the Fringes
September 17, 2018
A Book Review by Alex Brannan. For those experiencing a Jess Franco film for the first time, the response is unlikely to be an academic one. Known predominantly for horror and erotica films, Franco’s filmography is often relegated under the umbrella of trash cinema. His preoccupations with the female form, […]
Mommy Noir: A Simple Favor
September 14, 2018
By Elias Savada. The crazy wait-who-did-what? mystery that is A Simple Favor offers up a pair of smooth, subversive, suburban housewives that spin some sparkling dialogue off each other and their communal parental units. Mystery loves the company of Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in Paul Feig’s head-spinning, twisty-turvy tale of […]
Cinema Thinks: Film as Philosophy Edited by Bernd Herzogenrath
A Book Review Essay by John Duncan Talbird. The multi-authored book is a misnomer. Although out in the world there is no taint to the word “anthology,” it seems that in academe, readers (or publishers?) want something more cohesive. And so we have introductions wherein an editor will mightily attempt […]
Ending the War in Perpetrator’s Clothes: Robert Shwentke on The Captain
September 12, 2018
By Sergey Toymentsev. German-born director Robert Shwentke is mostly known for his glossy, action-packed Hollywood blockbusters, including RED, R.I.P.D, and two Divergent installments. But this time he turns to his German roots and offers a sleek black comedy about the final days of World War II from the perspective of a […]
Angel and Phoenix: Two Rising at the Toronto International Film Festival
By Ali Moosavi. Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has had a rapid rise in the last few years to become one of the A-List festivals alongside Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Many films from different corners of the world have their world or international premiere there. Angel (Un Ange), directed by […]
Beyond Geekdom: Science Fair
September 10, 2018
By Elias Savada. Science Fair, the new National Geographic documentary, follows the audience-pleasing formula easily recognizable in its predecessors. There are many fans of Spellbound (2002), an enlightening race to the top of the Scripps National Spelling Bee; Mad Hot Ballroom (2005), which chronicled schoolkids in New York City vying for a […]
Praising the New Flesh: The Modern British Horror Film by Steven Gerrard
September 6, 2018
A Book Review by Alex Brannan. Steven Gerrard’s The Modern British Horror Film (Rutgers University Press, 2017) is a slim, pocketbook-sized volume. It is part of the Quick Takes series, which provides “succinct overviews” of distinct avenues of cinema. While entries in this series are at least partially summative in […]
Tag Gallagher, in Print and Video
September 5, 2018
On the occasion of Tag Gallagher’s interview with Jake Rutkowski, we have listed the Tag’s writing and video essays available in from various sources and across the web: Articles/Books: John Ford: Himself and his Movies. New 2017-20. Kindle: Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/lb6krzo epub: iBooks: https://goo.gl/JTHaUg Ford short 2014 French: […]