I just finished a fascinating book on one of my favorite character actors- A Hollywood Tragedy- Laird Cregar by Gregory William Mank (McFarland). It’s one of those books that I knew was in the works and I wondered how…
Read more
An impressive batch or demented favorites, classics and cult oddities on Blu-ray this month. From Busby Berkeley-choreographed insanity like Footlight Parade to Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula– what more could one ask for? Footlight Parade (Warner Archive) One…
Read more
They post photos of missing kids on milk cartons. But what do they do about movies that you can never find? Movies that haven’t shown up on video, DVD or streaming (unless you count bootlegged blurry copies with Rumanian…
Read more
Brilliant, brutal but beautiful Australian revenge tale by director Jennifer Kent (The Babadook). Set in 1825 on the island of Tasmania, it’s about the Clare (Aisling Franciosi), an Irish convict who has finished a seven-year sentence for theft but…
Read more
(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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more