Suitable Flesh
“She was dark, smallish, and very good-looking except for over-protuberant eyes; but something in her expression alienated extremely sensitive people.” That’s how H. P. Lovecraft described the...
View ArticleAfter Death
There are few things more enticing to the human mind than death. It is often the subject of our books, our songs, our collective art. We are fascinated (and perhaps a little fearful) of exactly what...
View ArticleRediscover: Séance
Séance offers further proof that Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa can transpose his style and approach to virtually any genre or format and still turn out a gripping result. The director’s 2000 tale of...
View ArticleBoudica: Queen of War
The level of efficiency in the screenplay for Boudica: Queen of War is, in theory, something to be cherished. We have grown accustomed to massive, historically based action epics that bridge the gap...
View ArticleBad Press
There are few things in this world more effective at fighting violence, cruelty, corruption and fascism than a free press. Here in the United States, journalists are lucky enough to be granted many...
View ArticleCriminally Overrated: Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever, directed by John Badham and based on the fictional New York piece “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” published the year prior by Nik Cohn, was such an outrageous success...
View ArticleOeuvre: Altman: O.C. and Stiggs
Coming off a string of smaller, more intimate stage adaptations, Robert Altman returned to his signature style with O.C. and Stiggs, working with a huge ensemble cast and employing an ever-roaming...
View ArticleThe Holdovers
The difference between being an educator and a teacher can sometimes feel like the difference between being a father and being a dad. As countless cartoon PSAs from the ‘80s taught us, knowledge is...
View ArticlePriscilla
As the popularity of musical biopics has ebbed and flowed over the past several decades, so has the nature of how we mythologize or demythologize our cultural heroes. 2022’s Elvis, an opulent Baz...
View ArticleRustin
The 1963 March on Washington is part of the American psyche. Most Americans, regardless of political persuasion, see Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as a great example of our ideals speaking truth...
View ArticleThe Marsh King’s Daughter
An adaptation of Karen Dionne’s 2017 novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter also takes its title from a Hans Christian Andersen story. It’s a fitting choice, as the early minutes of Neil Burger’s latest feel...
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Spectrum Culture Goes to the New York Film Festival
Founded in 1963 by cineastes and film writers Richard Roud and Amos Vogel (the former of whom was fired from his critic role at The Guardian for writing a one-word review of The Sound of Music that...
View ArticleProject Z
It’s almost true what they say: there’s nothing new under the sun. This goes doubly for horror; because it’s such a conservative genre, innovation comes in brief bursts that don’t radically alter the...
View ArticleAll Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, was once quoted as saying, “The truth is, for me, it’s obvious that 70, 80 percent of a movie is sound.” If one were to take those...
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Revisit: The Others
(Writer’s note: In case you have yet to see The Others, it would be wise to do so before reading this review, which explicitly discusses details of its final revelation.) The horror-movie twist turns...
View ArticleRumble Through the Dark
Every possible avenue of its being either a successful character study or an engaging thriller falls short in Rumble Through the Dark, on account of its lead performer. That would be Aaron Eckhart, an...
View ArticleHoly Hell! Café Lumière Turns 20
Made for Shochiku Studios on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Yasujirō Ozu’s birth, Café Lumière finds the great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien working outside of his country for the first...
View ArticleFingernails
Love sure can’t be boiled down to a science, can it? As thuddingly obvious and cloying as that statement may be – and it is, to an extent – that doesn’t mean most audiences have tired of having it...
View ArticleOeuvre: Altman: Beyond Therapy
There’s a telling moment early on in Beyond Therapy, Robert Altman’s misbegotten 1987 adaptation of the Christopher Durang play, where a wild Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) launches over a dining table at the...
View ArticleThe Killer
The Killer follows one of the world’s top assassins — or so he would have you believe — as he attempts to clean up the mess created by a botched hit. This is not a new premise for a thriller, but in...
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