I suspect most people think of Susan Sarandon as an intelligent actress who has made all kinds of films, but is generally regarded for her more serious work.  So, it is always startling to see some of her early films.  It seems her appearance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is largely accepted today.  But […]

Before we even get to the opening credits of 1995’s Mute Witness, we see a woman in a typical slasher film setup get stabbed by an escaped mental patient wearing a stocking mask over his head.  The woman who is his victim proceeds to stumble all around the room in her death throes, knocking over […]

The Man Who Wasn’t There is a 1983 3D comedy with a very apt title.  It stars Steve Guttenberg, who, as I have written previously, consistently plays deeply bland roles—incredibly inoffensive nobodies whose favorite color is probably beige.  I saw a lot of beige while watching this, or at least varying degrees of some sort […]

1986’s Gothic is an exploration of what could have transpired over the course of the first night Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron in Geneva in 1816.  It was during that summer Mary formed the idea for what would become her novel Frankenstein.  Another guest at the mansion is Doctor Polidori, Byron’s alleged […]

I like The Talented Mr. Ripley just enough to make me wonder if there’s something wrong with me, as the lead character is a complete sociopath.  I like the first cinematic incarnation of Patricia Highsmith’s character, in 1960’s Purple Noon, almost as much, while acknowledging that film is better than the 90’s version. I went […]

I despise social media.  Given the demographic I am in, that isn’t much of a surprise.  I especially found it annoying when Facebook was at its peak popularity.  My Mom still thinks of it, and only it, as “the internet”.  I found it strange how so many people were only sharing information through that app, […]

The next time you drive over a manhole cover, imagine there is somebody under it, crying out for help, but nobody will hear them over the road noise.  That was something that lingered in my mind after seeing 2011 Australian found-footage horror film The Tunnel.  At one point, characters futilely scream up through such a […]

In addition to watching a great deal of movies, I read about them quite a bit, too.  I often find this a way to discover, or finally pay attention to, movies I would not have otherwise watched.  And so it was reading Satan in the Celluloid: 100 Satanic and Occult Horror Movies of the 1970s […]

As much I love The Blair Witch Project, it hasn’t exactly been the best influence on cinema.  While I am grateful it gave a boost to the found footage genre still going strong to this day, it has also seemed to be direct influence for such flawed works as 2014’s As Above, So Below. And […]

Kino Lorber continues to churn out their three-movie Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema sets and I keep happily buying them.  As I write this, they have just announced the 20th volume in the series.  With that many titles, there will doubtlessly be a few that are controversial in being labeled as “noir”.  The […]

Former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer had his political career derailed when it was discovered he had used personal checks to pay prostitutes for their services.  While that seemed pretty stupid of him, I also wondered why these working girls took checks as payment.  First, I wonder how they knew the checks wouldn’t bounce.  Even more […]

Ernst Lubitsch had an amazing run of features in the late 30’s and early 40’s, a period that included Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not To Be.  Unfortunately, he also did 1941’s That Uncertain Feeling. This screwball comedy is uneven in every regard: plot, script, performances.  It is like it […]

Of the many characters and creatures in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy of Lord of the Rings, my favorite may be the Nazgul, the nine former human kings who have been transformed by Sauron into wraiths.  When we first see them, they are riding what appear to be undead horses.  They are entirely badass, and, in […]

As the old joke goes, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, boy, practice.”  Failing that, you could also always get engaged to the eldest daughter (Lugene Sanders) of a wealthy businessman (Harry Fleer), like Richard Carlson does in Bert I. Gordon’s 1960 ghost story Tormented. Carlson plays a supposedly gifted jazz pianist, though […]