By James Churchill. Nobody forgets the first time they experienced Hayworth’s sudden emergence from the bottom of the frame in Gilda. The quick snap of the head that sends her hair in orbit, the calculated smirk, and the snarky, one-word response that lets us know right away who she cares most […]
Haunted Houses and Gothic Dread: An Interview with Brian O’Malley on The Lodgers (TIFF)
September 5, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. The Lodgers is a gothic horror tale set in 1920 Ireland. Directed by Brian O’Malley, it is a stately, tempered take on the traditional haunted house scenario. Centering on orphaned twins Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner), the film picks up as the youth have just turned […]
A Workman Finding His Artistry: The Cinematography of Roger Corman by Pawel Aleksandrowicz
September 4, 2017
A Book Review by Brad Cook. For many film fans, myself included, the name Roger Corman typically evokes an immediate response: That guy who makes schlocky movies quickly and cheaply and throws them out there to make a few bucks. Anyone who’s also a fan of the show Mystery Science Theater […]
The Brethren of GG (i.e., Jesus Christ) Allin: The Allins
By Johannes Schönherr. New York City, June 27th 1993: Notorious punk rocker GG Allin had finally served out a lengthy prison sentence in Michigan and was set to play his first concert after his release. The venue was a club called the Gas Station on the corner of East 2nd Street and […]
For Tobe Hooper: 1943-2017
By Christopher Sharrett. Some weeks ago I wrote a brief eulogy for George A. Romero, forthcoming in the print edition of Film International (15.4). Now I get word that Tobe Hooper is gone, so we lose almost all of the major figures of the horror film’s renaissance in the 60s and […]
Siri Grows Up: Marjorie Prime
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 […]
DC Shorts Film Festival at 14 (September 7-17): It’s Not the Size That Counts
August 28, 2017
By Elias Savada. Another year and another annual rite of passage for short form filmmakers and screenwriters (the event is fully titled DC Shorts Film Festival & Screenplay Competition), which arrives here for 11 days in September. With all the angst coming from the White House up the street, it’s time […]
A Titan In His Prime: Robert Mugge on Sonny Rollins and Saxophone Colossus (1986)
August 23, 2017
By Pete Donnelly. Left in the wake of rock and roll’s growing popularity, jazz icons essentially stood as living monuments to their revered era. Without mainstream recognition, many of the “Giants of Jazz” nonetheless continued to make vital music. Sonny Rollins, presented in the Robert Mugge film Saxophone Colossus (1986; named after […]