Author Archive: Dennis Dermody
Dennis Dermody
May 17, 2022
Cult
Robert Louis Stevenson knew plenty about doctors and medicine- he wrote most of his 1886 classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in bed, coughing up blood. After reading the book in seventh grade, I would retire to my…
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Dennis Dermody
May 9, 2022
Blu-Rays
May flowers mean only one thing to me- a colorful bouquet of batshit Blu-rays. And this month offers everything from the stupid to the sublime. A ludicrously ripe retelling of the life of the Marquis de Sade, a talking mule, a…
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Dennis Dermody
May 3, 2022
Cult
M– is for the monstrous way she treats us. O– means that she can be just obscene. T– is for the torment that she causes. H– is for the hatred she receives. E– is for the eyepatch she wears smiling.…
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Dennis Dermody
April 25, 2022
Personal
Listen, I’ve always said I hope I die from “spontaneous combustion” while sitting in a movie theater. The reality is that an air conditioner will probably fall from a window and bash my head in while I’m coming home from…
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Dennis Dermody
April 18, 2022
Movies
Opening at IFC Center on Friday April 29 is Vortex, director Gaspar Noe’s shattering portrait of an elderly couple shakily hanging on by a thread in their cluttered, lived-in flat. The great Italian director Dario Argento plays the husband, with…
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Dennis Dermody
April 11, 2022
Blu-Rays
Jayne Mansfield on Blu-ray! What more can one say about the glittering array of Blu-ray treats out this month? Frank Tashlin’s hilarious The Girl Can’t Help (starring Jayne) gets the special Criterion treatment. Two of Vincent Price’s best- the Dr.…
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Dennis Dermody
April 5, 2022
Blu-Rays
Now out on DVD from Kino Lorber is director Mark Rappaport’s wonderfully meta take on closeted actor Rock Hudson. Using Eric Farr as a stand-in for Hudson it begins seven years after the actor’s death from AIDs which shocked the…
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Dennis Dermody
March 29, 2022
Streaming
Once again, MHz Choice has got me through bleak times by immersing me in terrific foreign series you cannot see anywhere else. Gritty, twisty procedurals, suspenseful mini-series, and then there’s the wonderful eccentric detective Captain Marleau (like Olive Oyl in…
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Dennis Dermody
March 21, 2022
Movies
If you ever fantasized what Boogie Nights would be like if it suddenly turned into a slasher movie, your prayers have been answered with X, the fiendish, fabulous new horror film by Ti West, which opened in theaters Friday, March…
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Dennis Dermody
March 15, 2022
Blu-Rays
This month’s Blu-ray treats offer a wild range of cult and mainstream favorites, many transformed into 4K UHD editions and other rarities suddenly available in stunning restorations for the first time on home video. Included is Dario Argento’s deliriously demented-…
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