There is apparently debate in noir circles as to whether 1955’s The Looters qualifies for inclusion into the canon.  It may not take place in a big city or a desert town (the two typical location choices guaranteeing acceptance), but it does have a group of characters driven to extremes courtesy of a large amount […]

The more I see of Dario Argento’s work, the more I convinced I am 1977’s Suspiria is a fluke.  That film is still contentious today, though I think it is a masterpiece.  Mind you, the closer you examine it, the less sensical it appears.  It really is a jumble of ideas that seem to have […]

No matter how much cinema means to a person, there are few films which I believe anybody can say actually changed their life.  2011’s Samsara would be unlikely to make even a list of my top 100 favorite films, and yet it is the one that had the greatest direct impact on me.  Thanks to […]

1990’s Flashback is the kind of action-comedy, mismatched buddies film that was so popular in the 80’s and early 90’s.  It even strongly recalls Midnight Run from just two years prior, where a clever and funny fugitive is paired with a straight-laced man tasked with bringing him to justice. This time, we have Dennis Hopper […]

Everybody has a favorite Beatle, but I hope we can agree the most likable is Ringo.  And while each of them went before the cameras at different times (whether separately or collectively), he seems to be the most natural.  Still, I doubt he would have been in film if it wasn’t for being a Beatle […]

1972’s The Blood Splattered Bride opens with a quote from Plato.  Already I was thinking of how many lousy novels are preceded by a quote from Shakespeare, and I feel a Greek philosopher would be held in similar regard.  In this case, the quote is: “The good ones are those who are content to dream […]

The most reprehensible commercial video game released has to be the Atari 2600 release Custer’s Revenge.  Despite the primitive graphics, it is still easy to tell the player controls an aroused man who tries to get across the screen to force himself on a Native American woman tied to a post.  Some reviewers of the […]

I wonder what it is about eastern European countries that their more unusual fare tends to be very different from what most viewers in English-speaking territories are used to, while films from such a country also somehow manage to be similar to each other. Such is the case with 1981 Czech picture The Mysterious Castle […]

A strange dichotomy concerns 80’s all-girl rock bands.  You can like both The Go-Go’s and The Bangles, but you’re going to like one of them more than the other.  What seems to surprise most people is the former started out as a punk band fully committed to that aesthetic.  People seem to think artists can’t, […]

Sun Ra has intrigued me for decades now.  I am not a huge fan, but I discovered his work around the same time I became aware of artists like The Residents, and I suspect there many fans of the latter who are also those of the former.  For those not in the know, Ra claimed […]

One of the best music box sets I own is Rhino’s four-CD Girl Group Sounds: One Kiss Can Lead to Another.  I already liked tracks by such groups before buying it, but I was largely aware only of Phil Spector’s productions.  This set greatly expanded by musical education. It was like radio from a parallel […]

Record Store Day used to be a really big deal to me.  I still look forward to each new occurrence, but I no longer camp outside overnight like I used to.  For one memorable installment, my brother-in-law was there with me.  To pass the time, I brought a portable DVD player and he brought the […]