Mickey Rooney has been so thoroughly pigeonholed into handful of roles that is hard to believe he actually has some range.  1959’s The Big Operator is one of the few films I have seen that allows Rooney to play the bad guy, and he does so with relish. He plays a corrupt union boss who […]

I am now three movies into Arrow Video’s blu-ray box set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror and I have to say there’s only one I really liked so far.  And that title isn’t 1966’s The Third Eye. This is yet another thriller in the long shadow of Psycho.  For this film, the overbearing […]

Who knows how such folklore gets passed around, but something every guy just seems to “know” is the crazier the woman, the better the sex. John Forsyth never consummates a relationship with Ann-Margret in 1964’s Kitten with a Whip, but I felt that was the unspoken message underlying the picture. When we first see her, […]

It’s strange how similar horror and porn can be.  I kept thinking about this while watching the 1973 grindhouse horror film Miss Leslie’s Dolls. This movie has three college students, one guy and two women, and a young female professor of theirs holing up in a creepy house in the middle of nowhere as a […]

How can one fairly critique 1935’s Mark of the Vampire without spoiling anything?  My issue with it is there is a bizarre twist in the final third that so threw me that I thought I had literally lost the plot.  And yet, it wouldn’t be fair to new viewers to say anything that even hints […]

Why are there so many shooting stars in 80’s movies?  You would think meteorites didn’t exist before 1980.  In the opening of 1986’s The Wraith, one of those objects flaming across the sky turns out to be a UFO.  It flies through a saguaro cactus, a street sign and a campaign billboard, punching a hole […]

The 1981 concert film Dance Craze anthologizes performances by many of the UK acts of the 80’s ska revival, many of whom were associated with the legendary record label 2 Tone. The name of that label emphasizes one of the most remarkable aspects of that ska resurgence in the UK: groups with black and white […]

In my previous work life, one of my favorite days on the job was spending the day at a small regional airport getting b-roll of planes taking off.  I was in the grass between the runway and taxiway, just getting one plane after another. I mention this because I know first-hand how difficult it can […]

I was reminded of Infinite Jest1 the entire time I watched 2012’s The Master2.  Both works are way too long and pretentious.  This Paul Thomas Anderson3 film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman4 and Joaquin Phoenix5. Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams Watched on blu-ray 1 You know, the 1996 David […]

1948’s Ruthless is often categorized as film noir, but I found it to be a more of a straight drama, albeit with a sharper edge to it that most of the similar fare at the time. It apes the structure of Citizen Kane, though this time the object of everybody’s obsession is still alive.  Those […]

The 1991 comedy King Ralph opens with earliest incarnation of the Universal Studios logo before transitioning to each of three later iterations.  This is apparently intended to convey the rich legacy of this studio as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.  Myself, I thought this was the first joke in the movie, as the following picture […]

Needless to say, there has been a bit of obsession over The Beatles for decades now.  So many books and movies.  One would think there were no new avenues to explore in 1994, and yet Backbeat is, I believe, the first movie to concern their pre-fame years in Hamburg and the only true “fifth Beatle”, […]

Anthony Perkins may have been typecast as a result of the success of Psycho, but it’s only because playing disturbed persons seemed to come so naturally to him.  I don’t know what the man was like in real life—maybe he was as sweet and kind as Boris Karloff or Peter Cushing.  But you can’t deny […]

My wife’s dream car is a fully-restored original Volkswagen Beetle.  I also think they’re awesome, but I wouldn’t especially care to own one.  Still, they’re easy to anthropomorphize as having friendly, smiling faces.  It is that appeal which warrants the 2016 documentary The Bug: The Life and Times of the People’s Car. This well-paced film […]

“Garbo laughs” Greta Garbo’s persona of being a humorous ice queen was so thoroughly ingrained in the public consciousness of 1939 that all it took to sell a ton of movie tickets was this simple tagline. Fortunately, there is much, much more to Ninotchka than just Garbo’s advertised joviality.  This is a one of the […]