In the year 2000, my friend Mo was going to see the Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. We chatted about the show, and she mentioned how famously terrible Ted Heely is in the movie. After she saw it, I asked. "How was it?" "Bring back Ted Heely."
When I saw that same production, my takeaway was…
Read MoreI finally decided to watch P-Valley after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie Zola (I am so excited for that movie, you don’t understand). Something about content involving strippers is just *chef’s kiss*. I think the reason why I love them is because they represent who I want to be: confident, strong, talented and beautiful.
This show revolves around stripper culture. The main character, “Autumn Night”
Read MoreThe color that arrives on earth by way of meteorite in Lovecraft's 1927 short story isn't just one color, but described to be a spectrum of colors. Colors that infuse themselves into the very chemical makeup of life, altering it, contorting it into something alien. A spectrum of color can be achieved by fracturing light into its individual attributes. A process that Alex Garland's 2018 sci-fi horror Annihilation explores…
Read MoreToday, just a humble song of praise to classic Hollywood actress Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990).
There are the movie stars that still burn bright in our imaginations partly because they became (willing or unwilling) a cog in the visual American iconography machine-Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Charlie Chaplin. Hell, you probably saw or knew someone who bought a poster with all of them on it.
But then there are the Hollywood stars and actors who everyone knows but don’t get their praises sung enough. In this programmer’s opinion. . .
Read MoreThe film starts in a place where other versions do not, with the terrible Sir Hugo upon whom the curse of the Baskervilles justly falls, doing his terrible deeds. But that all turns out to be a reading of the legend to Holmes and Watson (appearing for the first time in colour!) by Dr. Mortimer (aka the Spirit of Christmas Present from the Alistair Sim Christmas Carol). Mortimer is a friend to the latest Baskerville to die of the curse, here to beg Sherlock Holmes to protect Sir Henry, the newest Baskerville to become Lord of the Manor from possibly being ripped up by a hell hound…
Read MoreLet’s take a trip through memory lane. It is the 1970s. Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin are on the radio. Your parents are screaming at you for your frivolous rebellious nature because all you want to do is immerse yourself in the world of rock n roll. Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000, Sony) concocts 1970’s youth culture in a semi-autobiographical period piece about a teenage journalist who gets catapulted into the big leagues writing about the lifestyle of famous rock stars for Rolling Stone magazine…
Read MoreIn 1927, H.P. Lovecraft wrote a short story called “The Colour Out of Space”. The tale accounts the events of a farm and it's inhabitants after being struck by a meteorite in the late 1880’s.
A color seemingly hitched a ride on the meteorite, a color never before seen by the human eye. This color, behaving almost like an organism itself, a virus if you will, spreads throughout the flora and fauna, wreaking havoc and destruction. The surrounding area becomes a hotbed of bizarre, otherworldly occurrences, unexplainable by science.
This idea of a geographical area. . .
Read MoreIn 1983, Martin Scorsese was at the end of his rope.
He was growing tired of the increasingly slow, obstacle strewn way Hollywood pictures got made. More painfully, his dream project, The Last Temptation of Christ, had been cancelled by Paramount at the eleventh hour just before he was to start principal photography.
Out of this dispiriting morass, came a movie miracle…
Read MoreInmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo is a documentary about one of the most unlikely movies stars ever, Danny Trejo.
Trejo made his way from San Quentin to number one on the call sheet. From a poor boy robbing all of the stores in his neighbourhood to a rich man staying in that neighbourhood and supporting it with his money, rather than moving to Beverly Hills…
Read More1981 – The Year of the Wolf, man.
For unknown (and, admittedly, unresearched) reasons, four separate werewolf movies were released in the US in 1981. Perhaps it was a final resonance of the seventies – the hairiest decade in recent history – or maybe it was one of those Armageddon / Deep Impact confluences. However it happened, this pack of Reagan-era loup-garou resulted in an Alpha classic, one worthwhile Beta, and, though user experiences may vary, two Omega dogs…
Read MoreRaya and the Last Dragon (2021, dir by Carlos Lopez Estrada & Don Hall, USA) is the newest Disney movie to hit its Disney+ streaming platform (given the pandemic). Although due to the new LA movie theater re-openings, it is also at the cineplex!
I am a bit late, but seeing the advertisements everywhere intrigued me.
I am a Disney fan. Watching Disney movies is so comforting. It gives you hope about the world. It transports you to another universe where fairytales and magic exist, and every ending is a happy one.
I am enjoying the new generation of badass female protagonists. . .
Read MoreYouth is wasted on the young. A saying that a future critic might have heard a million times, and became sick of. This future critic may have been jealous of adults, their freedom, and the independence that they possess.
Adults should be grateful, and not long for a time when they were subject to the whims of their parents, incarcerated at home or in school.
Along with independence. . .
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