I wish someone was showing an HD version of Julien Donkey-Boy, but this will do in the meantime. Harmony Korine sells enough paintings to never have to make a film again. That means he made this his way, and couldn’t care less what we think. I respect that. This movie is dumb, but I laughed a lot. Harmony was smart enough to hire a kick ass cinematographer, so while I was laughing I was marveling at the saturated colors and composition. Yep. I liked The Beach Bum.
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Buñuel’s final directorial effort is a beautiful, infuriating, and confusing movie. The film is far more Art than entertainment, but it still manages to be funny at times too. It’s also one of my favorites among this director’s work.
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Roger Corman made several, very loose Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price. They are almost all good to excellent. I personally don’t care for The Raven or Tales of Terror, but check out all the others. This one is special because it was written by Richard Matheson (the novel I Am Legend is essential reading) and co-stars Barbara Steele. It’s very melodramatic, but has held up well for me after multiple viewings.To quote Don Nicholas Medina… “You are about to enter Hell, Bartolome, HELL!… The netherworld. The infernal region, The Abode of the Damned… The place of torment. Pandemonium. Abbadon. Tophet. Gehenna. Naraka. THE PIT!… And the pendulum.”
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This one seems to have really disappointed people hoping for another Mad Max movie. I thought it was a much more realistic depiction of what life would be after the fall or law and order. The Rover is not an action movie. It’s very deliberately paced. There are little bursts of gun play here and there, but it struck me as more of a subtle art film than anything else. All the actors were excellent, but between this and The Lighthouse I have gained a ton of respect for Robert Pattinson’s range. Not everyone will like this movie. I loved it.
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Here’s a solid big budget history-based war film about three Jewish brothers that were resistance fighters in WW2. This has a good blend of drama and action. I was a bit torn on recommending Defiance as it’s a borderline blockbuster. What the hell, I liked it.
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This is a fictionalization of a 1989 Montreal mass shooting in which 14 women were murdered. It’s obviously brutal at times, but the filmmakers balanced out the movie well with victim and witness storylines. With its elegant black and white cinematography, and tasteful approach, I would say this is one of the most well made films about a tragic event I’ve ever seen. The director, Denis Villeneuve, went on to make some slightly bigger budget films.
A Blu-ray was released in 2010 but appears to be out of print.
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There’s been a lot written about this movie. I’m just going to focus one one man who helped make Orson Welles’ lost film available for all to see. Bob Murawski.
Who the hell is that?
Well, Murawski first came to my attention as one of the founders of Grindhouse Releasing (the other was Sage Stallone RIP). Before the advent of DVD they released essential cult films like Cannibal Ferox on Laser Disc. Once I finally got a DVD player I bought the disc version of Ferox and was blown away by the quality of the film restoration and the truckload of extras. Every single movie that Grindhouse has worked on is worth seeing, and a few are downright essential to own.
Later I learned that Murawski was a respected film editor. Grindhouse restored Lucio Fulci’s legendary film The Beyond and Bob managed to edit a shot from Lucio’s film into his work on a little movie called Spiderman (2002). How crazy is that?
Years later Grindhouse resurrected the lost cult film Gone With the Pope. The level of work that went into that restoration is mind boggling. Shortly thereafter Bob was contacted to put those film re-animation skills to work on a certain legendary Orson Welles project. Netflix made a documentary related to The Other Side of the Wind, so naturally I assumed that Murawski’s work would be covered. Nope. While the doc They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is well-worth watching, if you want to know about Bob’s work you’ll have to read the following interview. That ain’t right.
For all the above mentioned awesome things and more let me say this… Thank you Bob. You are a true hero to the history of cinema.
Oh yeah… I enjoyed The Other Side of the Wind too.
Not available on Blu-ray, but it looks like it may be released by Criterion Collection eventually.
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I have poked around quite a bit on the three streaming services I focus on, and there is very little film noir available in HD (thankfully things have improved since I first posted this). One that I did find is by none other than Stanley Kubrick. This seems to be his first film to really show his directorial ability. His previous film Killer’s Kiss was damn good, but does not stick in my memory like The Killing. The one element of this movie that really hangs in my brain is the supporting role by Timothy Carey as Nikki Arcane (how great is that character name?). Carey was a very talented actor, and generally creative guy, who also happened to be functionally insane. I once heard Crispin Glover relate an incident where the two actors hung out. Glover said that it became clear that Carey’s behavior was not an attempt to be funny, or just the antics of an eccentric. He was officially bonkers. Anyhow, come to the show for Kubrick and Nikki Arcane, and stay for everything else The Killing has to offer. It’s a true classic.
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This is one of my favorite cult movies of all time. It’s a one-of-a-kind film based on a short story by Harlan Ellison (who mostly approved of the adaptation). Don Johnson is trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with his dog Blood. He has a telepathic connection with the hyper-smart and talented pup. How do they use this amazing power? For the dog to find his boy some sex partners, of course. Beyond that it’s a trippy, funny, and fast paced adventure that should blow your mind all over your face.
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This marks Takashi Miike’s 100th film. Crazy. I certainly hope he makes much more of his unique brand of cinema. Here we have an enjoyable samurai action movie that is based on a manga series. It’s comic origins show, as the movie is even less realistic than the director’s 13 Assassins. That’s all right though. Blade of the Immortal is a lot of fun to watch.
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