By Cleaver Patterson. Camp Hell (2010) is not as the title may suggest an expose of the outer fringes of gay culture. What we have instead is something often anomalistic within the genre in which it comes – a horror film which attempts to be serious. Whether it succeeds or […]
A Desecrating Mirth: Ken Russell (1927-2011)
By Celluloid Liberation Front. ‘We don’t want to disrupt taxpayers from the benefit of cultural democracy, do we?’ (Museum Guard in Savage Messiah) British cinema lost with Ken Russell a vital antibody to its gangrenous pragmatism and aesthetic sclerosis. Russell’s imaginative exuberance has represented a refreshing if erratic presence within […]
Red Dog (2011)
By Carolyn Lake. Kriv Stenders’ Australian box-office hit of the year, Red Dog recently cleaned up at the Inside Film Awards – Australia’s “people’s choice” awards – winning in seven of the nine categories it was nominated in, including Best Director, Best Actor (Josh Lucas), Best Cinematography (Geoffrey Hall), and […]
The Man with the Video Camera: an interview with Alain Cavalier
By Santiago Rubín de Celis. The films by Alain Cavalier (born in Vendôme, France, in 1931) are the result of a process of slow, soft erosion. For more than fifty years – from his Nouvelle Vague-style short film Un Américain (‘An American’, 1958) to his 2009 feature, Irène, which is […]
A Dangerous Method (2011)
By Bryan Nixon. Director David Cronenberg is an auteur of flesh cinema whose films consistently examine the psychology of sex, violence, and regeneration. Having made films such as the voyeuristic Videodrome (1983), the mutating mad scientist thriller The Fly (1986), the gynecologic Dead Ringers (1988), the drug and bug infested […]
Kumaré (2011)
By Jacob Mertens. I have always believed in an idea of spirituality. For me, spirituality encompasses an intimate relationship between an individual and his or her surrounding environment. Note that I do not mean the word “environment” in the traditional sense of landscape and atmosphere, but rather as an external […]
Take Shelter (2011)
By Steven Harrison Gibbs. During an interview with CinemaBlend.com, writer/director Jeff Nichols observed that, “Anxiety, no matter how free-floating it is, it’s all rooted in the idea that you have something to lose.” In Take Shelter – Nichols’ sophomore outing and second collaboration with actor Michael Shannon – this sentiment […]
J. Edgar (2011)
By Bryan Nixon. “Edgar, you will rise to be the most powerful man in this country,” Annie Hoover (Judi Dench) prophesies to her son J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) in a dark suburbia bedroom. Her vision is proven true, because he created, headed, and personified the Federal Bureau of Investigation […]
A Familiar Ceremony
By Amy R Handler. Max Winkler’s debut feature, Ceremony(2010), puts a new spin on the old coming-of-age tale with edgy sensitivity, cryptic characters and a script replete with subtle ambiguity. The plot is familiar. 23-year-old Sam (Michael Angarano) is a budding author of children’s books, but much like with Sam […]
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: A Fairy Tale Remake
By Anna Arnman. Against her will, a young girl, Sally (Bailee Madison), moves in with her estranged father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) in an enormous old house called Blackwood Mansion. Alex is an architect restoring the house with the help of Kim, an interior […]