2016 Posts
Month: May 2017
Pariah (2011)
Pariah (2011) In cinéma vérité style, Dee Rees expands her original documentary, shooting on the streets of New York City, to capture this sexual awakening of a young black girl. Alike (Adepero Oduye) is a talented 17-year-old who struggles to come out to her parents and her community. Laura (Pernell Walker) is her best … MorePariah (2011)
La Promesse (1996)
La Promesse (1996) Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne draw from their documentary experience to fashion this savage critique of trafficking and exploitation of illegals in Liege, Belgium. The father [Olivier Gourmet] involves his son Igor [Jéréme Renier] to cover up the accidental death of a worker who falls from a scaffold. Igor makes the … MoreLa Promesse (1996)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) John Schlesinger adapts this true espionage story, based on the book by Robert Lindsey and screenplay by Stephen Zaillian. Timothy Hutton plays Christopher Boyce, who uncovers CIA projects to destabilize and depose Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of Australia. Using his friend, a drug dealer Daulton Lee, played by … MoreThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The Wrong Man (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956) Alfred Hitchcock experiments with documentary realism, adapting The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson. Henry Fonda plays the everyman, accused of multiple armed robberies, and Vera Miles plays his emotionally troubled wife, as the full repercussions of false accusations split their marriage apart. The noir streets of Jackson … MoreThe Wrong Man (1956)
Month: April 2017
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Stop Making Sense (1984) Jonathan Demme assembled the best footage from over three nights of The Talking Heads in live performances at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater during a tour to promote their new album “Speaking in Tongues.” Hits include “Psycho Killer,” “Heaven,” “Burning Down the House.” “Life During Wartime,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and “Crosseyed … MoreStop Making Sense (1984)
Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)
Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) Edward L. Chan directs this drive-in B-Horror version of The Mummy, this time with a reawakened id of a gladiator who perished during the volcanic destruction of Pompeii while trying to save his aristocratic mistress. Now stone-encrusted, this creature seeks out the reincarnation of his lost love in an … MoreCurse of the Faceless Man (1958)
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) Nunnally Johnson adapted this “fish-out-of-water” tale about a man (William Powell) who catches a mermaid (Ann Blyth) with whom he falls in love. Irving Pichel directs this fable about male mid-life crisis, with Irene Hervey as the jealous wife, Andrea King as a scheming seductress, and Clinton Sundberg … MoreMr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)
Month: March 2017
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Carmen Maura gives a defining performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish screwball comedy. Inspired by Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine, the film reveals a ‘new woman’ of the Post-Franco generation, someone who, like Pepa, caught in a whirlwind of passionate breakup, takes control of her life, and, … MoreWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
GOLD (1934)
Gold (1934) Brigitte Helm speaks! For ten minutes, she vamps in a science fiction film about corporate espionage made during the early Nazi period and directed by Karl Hartl. The ghost of the UFA’s great Metropolis lurks everywhere. John Wills (Michael Bohnen) is the villain, a British billionaire driven by greed to control world … MoreGOLD (1934)
The Blood Beast Terror (1967)
The Blood Beast Terror [aka, The Vampire Beast Craves Blood] (1967) Scotland Yard Inspector Quennell (Peter Cushing) investigates the grizzly murders of young men in the English countryside. Following the lead of a coachman, deranged by encountering something monstrous with wings, Quennell encounters Professor Carl Mallinger, a renowned entomologist, and his daughter. The critical … MoreThe Blood Beast Terror (1967)
Agantuk [The Stranger] (1991)
Agantuk [The Stranger] (1991) Based on his children’s story, “The Guest,” Satyajit Ray directs Utpal Dutt, “known for his decades of work in Bengali theater,” as Manomohan Mitra, who claims to be a long lost uncle, requesting hospitality from a middle class couple in Kolkata. Although skeptical, they let him into their home. This … MoreAgantuk [The Stranger] (1991)
Murder By Contract (1958)
Murder By Contract (1958) Finally restored to its sparse black and white cinematography that influenced directors such as Jean-Luc Godard , Robert Bresson, and Martin Scorcese, Irving Lerner directs beat cool Vince Edwards as Claude, a hit man for hire, who provides an existentialist philosophy for murder that proves successful until his target becomes a … MoreMurder By Contract (1958)
