By Jordan R. Young. To vintage film enthusiasts–more than 28,000 last year–April means it’s time for the TCM Classic Film Festival. The eighth annual event took place over three days and four nights in Hollywood this past April, where attendees feasted on a staggering number of films and an impressive […]
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, […]
Forgotten Innovators – An Interview with Kate Saccone on Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology
By Anna Weinstein. Released in May 2017, Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology includes nearly eleven hours of material and highlights the work of fourteen groundbreaking women filmmakers, dating back to 1902. This DVD collection offers a historical and critical study of the women who helped to shape cinema. The […]
A Blast From the Past: A Few Minutes with Ralph S. Hirshorn, Director of 1962’s The Dismembered
By Elias Savada. This wasn’t supposed to be an interview. While writing my review of the Blu-Ray of his sole feature The Dismembered, I thought I had met Ralph S. Hirshorn before. Sure he lives in Philadelphia, where I’ve been 3 or 4 times, but it wasn’t there. Looking in […]
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, […]