Original Cinemaniac

Author Archive: Dennis Dermody

She Dies Tomorrow

Director Amy Seimetz’s eerily relevant, visually trippy nightmare fable begins with Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil), who suddenly becomes convinced that she will be dead tomorrow.  Unfortunately, her morbid “idee fixe” has a communicable effect on her friends, and this overwhelming…
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The Painted Bird

            Director Vaclav Marhoul’s harrowing and beautiful adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird is a nearly 3-hour, black & white, Hieronymus Bosch-like hellscape.  Petra Kotlar hauntingly plays the young boy Petra, sent to a rural village in Eastern Europe to…
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Relic

            Director Natalie Erika James’ first feature-length film is the most terrifying, and surprisingly moving, film you’ll see this year.              Emily Mortimer plays Kay, who drives from Melbourne with her older daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) because a neighbor reports to the…
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The Ballad Of Dwight Frye

            A mysterious ship sails into a London port, seemingly without a crew. Authorities apprehensively board the vessel to find countless bloodless bodies. They approach a hold, hearing a demonic cackle, and up rises Renfield, the doomed, possessed slave of Count…
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Celebrity Skin Purses

            In Hollywood, “tuck” is not what you do to your children at night. Sometimes it’s a porn star’s name, but usually it’s something that you do to your body. To stay off the ravages of time, actors and actresses whittle…
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Gay For Pay

            It distresses me to hear all the arguments concerning straight actors playing gay roles. Those who think only gay actors should be offered gay roles are also limiting gay actors at what they are allowed to play. I thought it…
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