Undertones: Volume 3 From the beginning of cinema theatre owners tried a variety of methods in which to add sound to film. Initially the reasons for the addition of sound varied from people being weirded out by seeing mute folks onscreen to utilizing it as a means in which to mask the noise made by …
Brüno Directed by Larry Charles It’s hard to root against Sacha Baron Cohen. In the summer of The Hangover, a mildly funny film undercut by some unseemly homophobia and an over-reliance on comfy frat-boy humor, he’s got the gall to unleash not only the season’s most outlandish comedy, but most likely the most audacious film …
Fantasia Film Festival 2009 – World Premiere Must Love Death Directed by Andreas Schaap Offhand, it’s difficult to think of another film that features both a “meet cute” and a nail gun, but in his first feature, Andreas Schaap manages to unite the two. Must Love Death, for better or worse, belongs to a genre …
Body Count: Volume 13 Horror has seen its fair share of hacks. The genre may not necessarily have its roots in exploitation, but it didn’t take hucksters long to figure out that you can make a simultaneously schlocky and profitable movie on whatever currency happens to be jingling around in your pocket. So for all …
Public Enemies Directed by Michael Mann Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) brings his usual directorial flair to the well-worn story of John Dillinger and his dogged pursuers – but not much else. Shot in bracing digital with a weight and sense of gravity desperately missing from similar genre efforts as of late, Enemies nevertheless winds up …
Taken out of context, it seems like Bringing Up Baby should have been a blockbuster in its day. It had all of the necessary elements: big name stars playing unique characters, a wacky plot, hilarious dialogue and a large handful of plot twists – but when the movie premiered in 1938, it bombed. Director Howard …
Cult Cinema: Volume 13: Dear Internet, I’m sorry that we don’t like the same movies. I’ve let you down. After all that you’ve given me, from the questionably legal pornography, to the gory photos of car crash victims and dead celebrities, to the endless hours spent trolling creationist message boards and acupuncture websites, I’ve done …
Yes, he was the punchline of approximately a quarter-million Tonight Show jokes. But Michael Jackson’s stop-on-a-dime dance moves and sensual soprano have influenced generations of musicians, dancers and entertainers, and the man was so much more than what the tabloids made him out to be. One of entertainment’s greatest icons, he was incredibly gifted, and …
Racist Caricatures in Transformers 2 under scrutiny: A controversy has arisen since the blockbuster release “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” It surrounds the portrayal of two of the robots, which some of deemed a racist caricature. The robots are named “…Skids and Mudflap…” and “…both characters speak with voices that sound like urban black stereotypes, …
Myles of Footage I had a dream once where I was being chased by a monster down a long, narrow hallway. It felt like I was stuck in quicksand because I couldn’t quite get my legs moving fast enough to escape the monster’s claws. Right before watching Polanski’s Repulsion I shared that dream with a …
Undertones: Volume 2 In the 1940s the consumption of alcohol was predominantly glamorised on the silver screen. Starlets sipped sensuously on their g & t’s whilst detectives downed shots of whiskey before departing the office on a hot lead. If this was an accurate portrayal of the time, one has to ask how the hell …
Body Count: Volume 12 Some of my earliest horror movie memories are in the early 80’s. I was a cartoon junkie like most kids my age and you know how it goes on any saturday morning. Or maybe you know how it used to go. Get up wicked early, pour a massive bowl of cereal …
BAMcinemaFEST kicks off its first run this week in Brooklyn, beginning with a screening of a film from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, co-presented by the Sundance Posse. Don’t Let Me Drown is a simple love story from first time director Cruz Angeles. Set over the backdrop of the post 9-11 aftermath in Brooklyn, it …
Body Count: Volume 11 – Because of the nature of my website and the fact that a bulk of the writing is dedicated to the horror genre, it is often assumed that Cinema Suicide is all about horror. And you have no idea how much that bugs me. The original mission was a website in …
Cult Cinema: Volume 12 It’s tough to be straight-edge. By virtue of being drug- and alcohol-free, the whole world thinks you’re some Christian hardcore kid from Boston who only speaks in Minor Threat lyrics. But on the other hand, you do get to picture the whole world as some sort of decadent, liverish imbecile, lounging …
Undertones: Volume 1 Bring up Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo (1958) in conversation to anyone who has seen it and you are bound to get one of two responses; complete and utter contempt over its baffling complexity or hyperbolic gushing over the film’s genius. Whatever your opinion of Vertigo, the film does have a lot of talking …
The saying goes that the hero of your story is only as great as your villain, On podcast #124 I made a bold statement that the key difference between classic Disney movies and Pixar films is their villains. I love Pixar films, but in my mind classic Disney movies like The Jungle Book and The …
Away We Go Directed by Sam Mendes Give Sam Mendes credit – at least he’s finding new ways to make less-than-satisfying films. From the leaden, humorless graphic novel adaptation Road to Perdition, to last year’s hopelessly shrill Revolutionary Road, to this year’s comparatively light road movie Away We Go, Mendes’ troubles at least variate. Away …
The Third Man is a testament to the power of moving images. Often enough in the minds of the public, the writing or the acting of a film are considered the only true artistic aspects, while the cinematography is pushed aside as merely a technical detail, only the paint and brush needed to create the …
Auteur Theory: Volume 4 A true independent filmmaker, Douglas Buck’s short films have made him a recognizable name in the festival circuit. Beginning his filmmaking career in the early 90s, shooting his films on Long Island, Buck pretty quickly managed to build up a following. His films meld gore-based horror with harrowing stories of American …
It is by complete surprise that I ended up with a copy of this movie. There I was, walking the aisles of my virtual movie store, looking for ‘The Empire of the Wolves’ when my clumsy fingers stumbled and clicked on Neil Jordan’s (The Crying Game, In Dreams, Breakfast on Pluto) film instead. The result? …
Up Directed by Pete Docter Co-directed by Bob Peterson Those waiting for animation powerhouse Pixar to slip up are going to have to wait a little longer, as their third straight unmitigated success comes courtesy of Up, the latest effort to be directed by Pete Docter, who previously helmed Monsters, Inc. Up may not be …
It’s very hard to categorize a film like Baraka. Because of its particular characteristics – a complete lack of a verbal component, a non-linear ‘plot’ and a broadened coverage of our planet – it doesn’t fit it with any existing genre. With that being said, I wouldn’t want to have to put a label on …