Talk about going down the rabbit hole. I just finished this terrific book about Italian exploitation director Umberto Lenzi (Seven Blood-Stained Orchids/Orgasmo/The Tough Ones/Cannibal Ferox) by Troy Howarth called “Make Them Die Slowly” and I was catching up with other…
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I was saddened by the death of Oscar-winning director William Friedkin, and pleased by the outpouring of sympathy by actors and other directors who recognized his genius. I met him on the set of To Live and Die in L.A.…
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Talk about an eclectic and surreal month of Blu-rays this month. From a cult classic with a hilariously hambone performance by William Shatner, to a mommy dinosaur destroying London to reach her offspring, to the ultimate Bruce Lee film; a…
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Winter Kills is a brilliant 1979 paranoid political thriller by novice director William Richert, which got great reviews but was pulled from theaters after a short run. It also has garnered a well-deserved cult following. Jeff Bridges plays the brother of an assassinated…
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I think it was my sadness reading about the death of the sublime Jane Birkin that encouraged me to revisit a 1985 film she was in that was directed by Paul Morrissey– Beethoven’s Nephew. I remember loving the movie when…
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Maggie Q plays a toughened, yet damaged, Iraqi war veteran named Tes who begrudgingly accompanies her sisters to their parents’ farmhouse way out in the desert for a bachelorette party. Her sister Beth (Kat Foster), a Stepford Wife with an…
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I still cannot believe I have the new Criterion box set of the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini in my hot little hands. I have been waiting for this baby for months and sliding in each disc to see the…
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One of the best films people didn’t see in theaters recently was Beau is Afraid. It’s coming on on Blu-ray on July 11 from Lionsgate and I urge you to experience it’s maniacal charms. Directed by Ari Aster’s it’s about…
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Spooky castles, vengeful witches, malevolent eyeless crying women and a shapeshifting Baron who transforms into a hairy, big-headed monster with an elongated forked tongue that sucks out your brain. These are some of the pleasures in an astonishing new Blu-ray…
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There are some movies you love for all the wrong reasons. Bus Riley’s Back in Town is one of those films for me. Not because it’s any good. Or even trashy fun in a good/bad movie way. It’s just a…
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