By Maggie Hennefeld. Imagine being so hilarious that your jokes, impressions, or other repartee literally caused someone to laugh themselves to death.1 —“Does Your Stand-Up Act Need Death by Laughter Insurance?,” Trusted Choice, insurance web advertisement, August 10, 2019 Imagine being so wild and free that your laughter literally killed […]
Tangled Up In Blue: Patrick Tam’s My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989)
By Thomas M. Puhr. Violent, sensual, and at times poetic….” Kani Releasing continues to expose Western audiences to unsung masterpieces of Asian cinema, and their latest – a restoration of Patrick Tam’s violent, sensual, and at times poetic My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (Sat sau woo dip mung, 1989) […]
Young at Heart: Julio Torres’ Problemista
By Jonathan Monovich. Writer-director-star Julio Torres cleverly compares the one-month countdown for finding work visa sponsorship to both an hour glass running out of sand and a never-ending maze…. Problemista‘s tone possesses a childlike innocence, which works quite well in contrasting serious subject matter.” Slinkys that refuse to fall down […]
Mad Props – For the Movie Collector Nerds Amongst Us
By Elias Savada. Humankind’s appetite for many things nostalgic is at play here, and it is a satisfying meal.” Most folks who do genealogy, like myself, cherish old photos of their great-great grandparents, a family bible with birth, death, and marriage records handwritten in the back, or assorted documents and […]
Rebel Revelations – Mavericks: Interviews with the World’s Iconoclast Filmmakers
A Book Review by Jeremy Carr. The variance of the interviews in Mavericks is part of what makes the book such an engaging read. No two are exactly alike, and any given conversation yields surprising and rewarding conclusions.” Gerald Peary makes it clear, from the very beginning, what readers can […]
Always an Outsider – Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood’s Zen Rebel
A Book Review by Ali Moosavi. I’ve always felt like an outsider….” –Harry Dean Stanton One of my abiding movie memories comes from the 1984 Edinburgh International Film Festival. I got to watch a late night showing of the full, uncut, 229 minute version of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a […]
Dune: Part Two – The Myth Continues, Big and Loud
By Elias Savada. Dune: Part Two succeeds on its many storyline levels, big and small. Passion, power, corruption, oppression, romance, intimacy, and revenge all get their time in this sweeping spectacle.” Okay, it’s been awhile since Dune (well, only a few hours in elapsed cinematic time), but the wait is […]
Drive Away Dolls: On a Goofy Coen Road Comedy
By Elias Savada. Gags and pratfalls ensue, many funny and more than a few blush-worthy as the film speeds through its brief 84-minute running time.” Sure, we’ve been conditioned over the last 40 years that you can’t have one Coen (brother) without the other. Two peas in a pod. Ethan […]
Podcasting Horror and Conspiracies: Filmmaker Matt Vesely on Monolith
By Jenny Paola Ortega Castillo. When you’ve only got one actor, you’re constantly thinking about how to make it cinematic…. Our film is about people telling stories from their past; it’s a slower burn and about piecing together a mystery.” Matt Vesely’s ‘Monolith’ is a remarkable eerie sci-fi mystery that […]
Got His Mojo Workin’: Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls
By Thomas M. Puhr. Ethan Coen’s solo debut is not great, and it doesn’t want to be. Like its protagonists, it’s fast, loose, and fun….” The Coen Brothers’ seemingly brief split – they just announced plans to reunite for a horror film; be still my heart – has yielded some […]