During a holiday dinner late last year, the topic of Jennifer Lopez’s acting career came up, within the context of a larger film discussion, thanks to my mentioning her excellence in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of […]
Category: Columns
FILE UNDER: CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SH*T IS RATED PG??
Rock musicals of the 1970s are one of numerous corners in pop culture that represent the rapid change of taste happening during the New Hollywood era. For decades, the traditional musical was a reliable gimmick […]
Rutger Hauer: The Nostradamus of Cyberpunk Cinema
Rutger Hauer started his acting career as “the Dutch Robert Redford.” He was a leading man but lurking beneath the surface was a limitless reservoir of talent and an uncanny ability to tap into the […]
DEAR JOHN: THE BROKEN HEART OF “PROWLER” SHERIFF GEORGE FRASER
Any good slasher movie worth its salt gives us a villain that has some traumatic event that sets off their murderous frenzy – their “trigger,” if you will. Sometimes it’s horrifically tragic, sometimes it’s tragically […]
TRAUMA BEGETS TRAUMA: THE MOTIVATION OF PAMELA VOORHEES
Any good slasher movie worth its salt gives us a villain WHO has some traumatic event that sets off their murderous frenzy – their trigger, if you will. Sometimes it’s horrifically tragic, sometimes it’s tragically […]
HOME IS WHERE THE HORROR IS IN PETER TSCHERKASSKY’S OUTER SPACE
Experimental cinema is a strange beast. Often treated as something different to more conventional styles of film, it can feel like a sub-genre that’s drowned in the academic, made impenetrable or unable to be understood […]
MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRLS GONE WILD
Vera Chytilova graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in 1962, but when she entered the Academy, she stood in front of a board of resident […]
BAVA IN SPACE: PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES REMAINS A COLORFUL EXPLORATION
Blending science fiction and horror together on film often creates both excitement and dread among cinephiles. There is a feeling of excitement because of a universe of possibilities for clever filmmakers to create cosmic calamities […]
TRASH TALK: THE UNBELIEVABLY FASCINATING CHARACTER OF MORTON DOWNEY JR.
PUMP UP THE COLUMN EXPLORES THE MANY INTERPRETATIONS OF PUNK AESTHETIC USED IN CINEMA In my first “Pump Up The Column” piece I mentioned that the definition of punk varies. If you ask some maybe […]
WHEN THE CLOCK STRIKES 12, EVIL RULES THE CITY IN THE UNEROTIC THRILLER, MIDNIGHT COP
BARGAIN BINNED DIGS DEEP INTO THE RANDOM AND FASCINATING TITLES FOUND IN THE CLEARANCE AISLE My DVD of Midnight Cop highlights actors Morgan Fairchild, Michael York, and Frank Stallone, while omitting the movie’s actual star, […]
TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE(S), AKA THAT DOG WILL PUNK
Tobe Hooper collected many accomplishments as a filmmaker: there was Salem’s Lot, the miniseries that made kids soil their bedsheets at the thought of a vampire floating outside their bedroom window asking to be let in. […]
WILLIAM CASTLE A ONE-TRICK PONY? NAH
As time goes on and his films become historic artifacts, the overall opinion on William Castle has warmed up. There was a time, however, when his trademark gimmicks were considered cheap and tacky. But doesn’t […]
DEAD MAN: JIM JARMUSCH’S TRANSGRESSIVE WESTERN TONE POEM
There is something romantic about a film genre set in unexplored territory in a bygone period, places untouched by Western civilization, where right and wrong are settled by the spin of a gun barrel, a […]
“READ MY LIPS – NOT X RATED!” 1995’S EVIL ED TACKLES CENSORSHIP, PUNK, AND POLITICS
PUMP UP THE COLUMN EXPLORES THE MANY INTERPRETATIONS OF PUNK AESTHETIC USED IN CINEMA Genre film – in particular, horror – and punk rock have enjoyed a long and comfortable kinship. For bands like The Misfits and The Cramps, […]
HAL NEEDHAM’S “BALLET WITH BMX BIKES” RESURFACING AT SXSW THIS YEAR
BARGAIN BINNED DIGS DEEP INTO THE RANDOM AND FASCINATING TITLES FOUND IN THE CLEARANCE AISLE Director Hal Needham knew stunts. He was a stuntman himself, having worked in innumerable Westerns during the ’60s begore turning […]