(I was so upset to hear that the great Hong Kong actor Simon Yam was stabbed on stage in China by some paranoid schizophrenic that I decided to resurrect an article I wrote about Category III films- which Simon…
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Movie theaters are doing it all wrong. Yes, theater-going is down thanks to streaming. But in the 1950s when theater chains were panicked about the advent of TV they came up with movie gimmicks like 3D and Cinemascope. They…
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Another amazing month of offbeat Blu-ray treats, from sci-fi greats, to Fassbinder upgrades, 3 sensational thrillers starring Jane Fonda, Ingrid Bergman and Yvonne De Carlo, 4 fabulous Universal Studio chillers, an early Kathyrn Bigelow, and an exceptionally depraved Italian…
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Everyone’s excited about the new season of Stranger Things online (and I admit I can’t wait to dive into it), but I’ve been “Upside Down” for weeks over a new series on the amazing streaming network MHz Choice– Captain…
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Photographer Richard Billingham made a name for himself with alarming autobiographical photos of his family- his alcoholic father and obese, tattooed mother in England. This film expands on that by plunging the audience into the squalid house, with Liz…
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In the 80s one of my closest friends organized a surprise birthday party where my friends chipped in to buy me a VCR. Those were in the days when the machines were big, clunky top loaders. They also bought…
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Director Ari Aster’s gloriously disturbing new movie is drenched in sunlight but every frame drips darkness. Florence Pugh plays Dani, still reeling from a family tragedy, who interjects herself into the summer vacation plans of her boyfriend Christian (Jack…
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