The Pleasures and Perils of SHANGHAI SURPRISE
I’ve actually been meaning to catch up with Shanghai Surprise for some time: growing up…
VICTIM (1961)
Social message films or ‘issue dramas’ almost always have the cards stacked against them. Film…
Re-Viewing 1980s U.S. Films – Part 5: Swimming to Cambodia
Reagan’s Morning in America was a dream world, suggesting that even the more massive historical…
Filming the Radical: I AM CURIOUS
I Am Curious (Yellow) broke through the censors in 1969 even though Lena, the lead character,…
Re-viewing 1980s U.S. Films – Part 4: Prizzi’s Honor
The Godfather I (1972) and II (1974) served as a prelude to a string of…
The Problem with BOYHOOD (2014)
Boyhood‘s final vignette finds Mason (Ellar Coltrane) wrapping his mind around the roommate selection process for…
Larry Kramer’s Meretricious ‘Heart’
History is a curious creature. What can appear as so initially exhilarating and provocative at…
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991): My Relationship with Hannibal Lecter
My relationship to The Silence of the Lambs is strange. I first read the novel…
Re-Viewing 1980s U.S. Films–Part 3: Paris, Texas
One of the more difficult things about writing about film is how to address the…
I’m Glad I Called THAT Guy — A Closer Look at BILLY MADISON
It’s all too easy for film enthusiasts — critics, academics, amateur bloggers — to ignore…