Final Portrait (2018) Stanley Tucci wrote and directed this independent film that focuses on the unrelenting obsession of Alberto Giacometti when at work making a portrait of his friend James Lord, who wrote about the experience. Geoffrey Rush provides a credible performance as the artist, and Tony Shalhoub surprises as his brother Diego. The excruciating … More Final Portrait (2018)
Meat Weed Madness (2006) The only short at the TROMA Festival that was booed by the entire audience was made by Aiden Dillard who subsequently wrote and directed this follow-up. Offending the audience becomes post-punk sport. Naked babes and incest fantasies feature performance artists Hells’ Belles as parricides, with a Bullpucky minotaur added for classical … More Meat Weed Madness (2006)
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) Billy Jack, Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert, a half-Cherokee liberal who preaches peace but is quite willing to kick the ass of all right-wing racist cops and politicians, created and played by Tom Laughlin, here reprises the plot of Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in the last … More Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
Judex (1963) Jacques Champreux, the grandson of Louis Feuillade, convinced Georges Franju to remake Judex in the tradition of early French serial crime dramas. A banker is sent a threatening letter, demanding that he return all money swindled from other clients. It is signed “Judex,” which means either “justice” or “revenge.” The result is a … More Judex (1963)
The Mummy (1959) This film remains my favorite because when Christopher Lee as the Mummy reaches archeologist Peter Cushing, he really intends to strangle him. Terence Fisher directs this Hammer classic that captures the 1890s British society in exquisite costuming [Mary Arbuthnot], sets [Bernard Robinson] , and cinematographic color [Jack Asher]. Yvonne Furneaux never looked … More The Mummy (1959)
The Diabolical Dr. Z [aka Miss Muerte] (1966) Alejandro Ulloa provided the exquisite black and white cinematography for Jesse Franco’s dissociative collage of horror. Irma [Mabel Karr] takes revenge on the doctors who mocked her father’s research on “the moral centers of the human nervous system.” Dr. Z is himself less a moral center than … More The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)
Cartels (2017) Here’s another macho fantasy about U. S. Marshals caught in the crossfire of Eastern European drug cartels. Evil overlord and martial artist Georges St.Pierre plays insane Salazar, confronted by Steven Seagal in a fat showdown. Critics who complain that Seagal’s in this movie only fifteen minutes miss the point. Everybody knows that when … More Cartels (2017)
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) A sitcom biopic that honors the free spirit of Radio DJ Adrian Cronauer by replacing him with the manic riffs of Robin Williams in free-style verbal improvisations. Parts of Sergeant Cronauer’s Vietnam experiences – volunteering to teach English to Vietnamese youth, witnessing the bloody aftermath of a Vietcong attack that he … More Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse , aka Expulsion of the Devil (1973) Juan Luis Buñuel co-wrote and directed this horror film in which a house takes possession of its inhabitants and drives them mad. Dominique, the son, prefers playing outside with his toy soldiers, whereas Sophie draws imaginary buildings while her father sketches … More Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse , aka Expulsion of the Devil (1973)
L’Argent (1983) Robert Bresson’s last film is an austere study of the bleak Eighties where obsession with money drives youths into gangs of thieves. Their passing of counterfeit money implicates one young man who winds up in jail, with his daughter dying and his wife abandoning him. That act of injustice precipitates him into senseless … More L’Argent (1983)
