Stars and stuff on the silver screen.
Quickly, now: name one good filmmaker who started out making music videos. Not bad, not bad. Now, just as quickly: name one good filmmaker who, after making it in feature films, went back and made more music videos. Wasn’t as easy, was it? And if you’re looking for a reason …
Yermek Shinarbayev’s Revenge had, to put it mildly, a bit of a struggle facing its path to cinematic glory. For one thing, the world wasn’t exactly focused on Kazakh cinema at the time (not that that world has seen fit to alter that lack of focus today), and the Soviet Union was …
Everybody’s got to start somewhere. Richard Fleischer, who would become a Hollywood fixture without ever reaching star status among directors, had a very curious beginning to his career: after the usual short subjects, he directed a critically acclaimed WWII documentary, a tight little noir picture written by a young Robert …
Blonde Ice announces right off the bat what kind of movie it’s going to be when we drop in on the wedding of society reporter Claire Cummings (Leslie Brooks) to well-heeled Carl Hanneman (John Holland). A handful of her male co-workers at the newspaper are wondering how a woman who was …
Portraying insanity in the movies is a pretty tricky proposition, particularly when it comes to protagonists. You want to make your characters crazy enough to be interesting to the audience, but not so vividly mad that they become impossible to identify with, or that they seem to be cruel caricatures …
Nightfall was David Goodis’ metier. It was his primary compositional material, his inspiration, his preferred period to work. Of all the noir writers of the classic period, he was perhaps the darkest; while his books didn’t feature the raw, violent edges or the grotesque details of Jim Thompson, no one …
Today’s Noirvember entry carries on a few themes from the last review of The Prowler: the presence of Evelyn Keyes (who I am assured ran a kicky newspaper column in the 1980s in Los Angeles full of takes on debauched Hollywood), the use of exotic locations (it’s the only classic-period noir …
The Prowler, a taut and cruel thriller that’s both insightful and deeply disturbing, begins with an unsettling scene that can’t help but remind viewers who have seen both of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom: Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes) is preening in front of her vanity when she spots a creep lurking outside her bathroom …
If nothing else, The Man Who Cheated Himself — released at Christmas in 1950 and capably directed by Felix Feist — is a good reminder of what, exactly, most noir films were supposed to be: cheaply made B-grade crime pictures to be stuck in second or third place before the main attraction. …
MONSTER: Dracula REAL NAME: Vladimir T. Dracula, Jr. COLLECTIVE NAME: Draculae POWERS: immortality, flight, mental domination, control over vermin, moodiness PET PEEVES: inability to eat aïoli FAVORITE WU-TANG CLAN MEMBER: RZA MOST REALISTIC FILM DEPICTION: Seven Golden Candelabras of Dracula (1958, Allied Antiques, USA) *** MONSTER: Wolf Man REAL NAME: …
What can possibly be gained by comparing the two film versions of Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie? Beats me, but their recent and sudden appearance on Netflix streaming, combined with vague curiosity and less vague boredom, led me to find out. I’m an unapologetic booster of Brian De Palma, and a …
She is not like the women in those other films, those dangerous women that she has come to bury just as surely as she will soon occupy a sad and lonely grave, sunk in a pond, crammed in the trunk of her brand new car. They are professional criminals, or …
Some movies are impossible not to like. Despite your best efforts not to be suckered in, they have some elusive quality – a game cast, eye-catching design, or an indefatigable sense of energy – that win you over. Bride and Prejudice isn’t one of those movies. But it’s so, so …
Kelly Reichardt’s films are, to put it mildly, deliberate. Their pacing is so careful and precise as to be torpid (if you’re generous) or boring (if you’re not). I’ve seen every one of her movies, and I’ve enjoyed every one; like Chantal Akerman, there is a method to her maddening slowness. …
UNHELPFUL MNEMONICS 1. Every Grotesque Ballardian Describes Fascism 2. Malicious Vegetables Elude Motorist Junkers’ Stronghold? Ultimately, No. 3. Klonopin Is Salacious, Shalimar 4. Thirty days hath September, quickly grasp my throbbing member, slide your hand ‘pon thither and yon, then consult this sheet of paper I have written the number of …
