By Sotiris Petridis. Filmmaker Mark Hartley’s (2008’s Not Quite Hollywood, 2010’s Machete Maidens Unleashed!) latest delightful chronicle of B-movie splendor, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, spotlights the story of a production company run by two eccentric Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan (1929-2014) and Yoram Globus (1941- ). Created in 1967 […]
A Debut in the Wastelands: John Maclean on Slow West
By Paul Risker. Slow West (2015) finds a young filmmaker stepping onto the landscape of an established genre: America’s own, the Western. It is a journey onto an old and familiar stage that offsets Scottish writer/director John Maclean’s youthful career. Slow West is his feature directorial debut, preceded only by couple of […]
Nordic Noir to the British Isles: Richard Laxton on River
December 23, 2015
By Paul Risker. There is a certain air of excitement, or rather, anticipation that comes with the arrival of a new detective walking the trail of mystery in the crime genre. This can be attributed to the recent success the genre has found in the Nordic Noir phenomenon and which has […]
“I Gotta Be Me”: Thoughts on Hitchcock/Truffaut
December 23, 2015
By Elias Savada. I still remember buying the paperback book Hitchcock/Truffaut. I found the English version, originally published in 1967 by Simon & Schuster, a few years after college, probably in the stacks at the Strand Book Store in New York City. It was an easy, enjoyable read with lots of […]
Music in Bits (and Debris): Hot Sugar’s Cold World
December 22, 2015
By Elias Savada. “Anything can be turned into anything.” So says scruffy, droopy-eyed musician/music producer Nick Koenig, the eponymous subject of writer-producer-director Adam Bhala Lough’s documentary Hot Sugar’s Cold World. Grammy-nominated Koenig, a.k.a. Hot Sugar, and composing as Nick Koenig-Dzialowski likes to think outside the box, pushing his digital recording devices […]
The Big Short: The Funny Side of Financial Collapse
December 22, 2015
By Elias Savada. Mention the words “subprime mortgage” and people start dozing, or leave the room. Hey, you! Yes, you! Wake up. And your friend, get him back in here! Because both of you, my favorite readers, really want to learn about the fine new educational and entertaining film from Adam […]
Expressive Noise: An Interview with Naoki Kato on Carnival Folklore 2045
December 21, 2015
By David Novak. Carnival Folklore 2045 is perhaps the first true Noise film; its development is driven by the Noise that bursts out of the narrative, dominating the landscape of the film and binding the characters together in a mysterious world of sound. Combining the audacious absurdity of B-movie science-fiction kitsch with the […]
The 2015 European Union Film Showcase
December 21, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. The American Film Institute’s annual European Union Film Showcase screened December 1-20 at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. This year’s program, the festival’s 28th, opened with Spanish filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa’s comedy-drama A Perfect Day, set in the Balkans, and closed with Radu […]
Awakening the Legacy from Here?: Star Wars: the Force Awakens
By Paul Risker. Stories as in life have no true beginning, middle or end. Rather they are just a series of events running together like a never-ending piece of string that creates the linear structure of time. It is perhaps within the individual chapters that a beginning, a middle and […]
The Real Bad Santas: Monstrous St. Nicks from Around the Globe
By Sotiris Petridis. When we hear “Christmas films” we usually think of family-themed movies, comedies or even rom-coms, but the last thing that comes in mind is horror. Many horror films are based on holiday themes to attract audience members that are cranky about this jolly season. Black Christmas (1974 and […]