In 1969, James Frawley made the jump from being an Emmy-winning director of the joyous Monkees TV-show to thoroughly bumming people out with his debut film The Christian Licorice Store. That movie, staring Baeu Bridges as a tennis player going through an existential crisis, barely earned a formal release. But it did lead to 1973’s Kid Blue, a thoughtful, ramblin’ western featuring an acting trifecta for the ages: Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates and Peter Boyle. Find some thoughts on these two offbeat movies over at Aquarium Drunkard.
Read MoreAn article on Alex Cox’s STRAIGHT TO HELL, written for Aquarium Drunkard’s Videodrome column.
Read MoreIt’s a trifecta today: a brilliant three-chapter Japanese film WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, the impressive Iranian tragedy BALLAD OF A WHITE COW, and the psychedelic mind-bending document of Hawaii that is Fern Silva’s ROCK BOTTOM RISER.
Read MoreAltogether, around 150 at-home screenings were made available to the press. We had five days to watch them. I was able to watch 22 of them. This is Part One.
Read MoreAre superhero movies a real risk to cinema, or have movies changed in such a way that cinema is no longer found in cinemas?
Read MoreRobert Pattinson has supposedly called the movie a "slapstick western," but I have a hunch he may have intended something closer to a "western farce." These terms tend to get mixed up because they often coexist. It's common for a farce to contain some slapstick elements as a way of reinforcing the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the genre (or the spirit of the story being told), but Damsel isn't much of a slapstick anything. It's not a Three Stooges western. It is quite silly, clever and violent at times, but at its heart it is a tragedy -- one that is both funny and sad, sometimes within the same scene. And I think that's a big reason why it makes for a very successful farce.
Read MorePerhaps it's a good sign as to just how much I liked his latest, the recovery tale called Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, but I'm now eager to catch up with Restless and Land of Trees (as with Finding Forrester, I still have a hard time finding interest to see Promised Land).
Read MoreAnderson has created his own Roald Dahl-type fable this time. Or, to be more precise, his own The Little Prince. While the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic is about a pilot who crash lands in the desert and meets a little boy from another planet, Isle of Dogs is about a boy who crash lands on an island and meets five dogs who agree to help him find his beloved Spots. In case the hat tip wasn't implicit, the dogs call the mysterious fallen boy, the "Little Pilot."
Read MoreIs it possible for an Alien movie to still offer surprises? If you've been following the trajectory of these movies for the past few decades, you'd be forgiven for considering the series exhausted. And while I'm willing to admit that lowered expectations may influence my appraisal, it doesn't diminish the fact that Alien: Covenant is by far the best of the last thirty years. But not only that, it's a terrifically twisted horror movie that stands rather well on its own.
Read MoreWhat Ben Wheatley's Free Fire does have is a gleeful bloodlust and rambunctious charm that carries it surprisingly far.
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