Bill Bria, Author at Crooked Marquee

Bill Bria Says Don't Forget: <i>Villains</i> — Bill Bria

Bill Bria Says Don't Forget: Villains

Dec 23rd, 2019

The “home invasion” subgenre has been flipped on its head a number of times, enough that Villains’ concept of two petty criminals breaking...

Bill Bria Says Don't Forget: <i>The Death of Dick Long</i> — Bill Bria

Bill Bria Says Don't Forget: The Death of Dick Long

Dec 23rd, 2019

In the social wasteland that is the end of the 2010s, empathy seems to be on its way out. Daniel Scheinert, one half of the directing duo that made...

<i>1941</i>: Spielberg's First Musical — Bill Bria

1941: Spielberg's First Musical

Dec 17th, 2019

The end of the 1970s saw some of the American filmmakers who had risen to prominence during the decade come under fire due to their hubris. The...

Review: Sequestrada

Dec 5th, 2019

If Sequestrada were a documentary, it might be a success. Onscreen titles explain the plight of Brazil’s indigenous tribes, who have been...

<i>Sleepy Hollow</i> and the Rise of Gothic Noir — Bill Bria

Sleepy Hollow and the Rise of Gothic Noir

Nov 19th, 2019

Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a classic of Gothic horror, an atmospheric and ambiguous tale about a...

Review: <i>Feast of the Seven Fishes</i> — Bill Bria

Review: Feast of the Seven Fishes

Nov 18th, 2019

Holiday movies, especially Christmas movies, tend to be high-concept affairs, featuring guardian angels, kid-made booby traps, or ghosts haunting a...

<i>Shocker</i>: Wes Craven's Would-Be Freddy Competitor — Bill Bria

Shocker: Wes Craven's Would-Be Freddy Competitor

Oct 28th, 2019

In 1989, the popularity of the Nightmare On Elm Street series and its flagship character, Freddy Krueger, were still going strong. Wes Craven, who'd...

How <i>The Wild Bunch</i> and <i>Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid</i> Helped the Western Ride into the Sunset — Bill Bria

How The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Helped the Western Ride into the Sunset

Oct 7th, 2019

Perhaps the most notable example of a prominent movie genre that disappeared almost entirely is the Western. Once inescapable — there were close to...

NYFF Report: Reality vs Fiction

Oct 3rd, 2019

Film is a strange medium. It requires creating images and moments that must have the semblance of reality but which are totally fictional. At least,...

NYFF Report: Crime & Consequences

Sep 30th, 2019

Crime films deal with criminals in a variety of ways, but there is a temptation (often indulged) to treat the criminal as an “other,” as “the...

EXCLUSIVE: Future <i>Fast & Furious</i> Spinoffs Revealed! — Bill Bria

EXCLUSIVE: Future Fast & Furious Spinoffs Revealed!

Aug 5th, 2019

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is a hit, and it’s clear that the Fast & Furious franchise has no intention of putting on the...

20 Years Ago, <i>Lake Placid</i> and <i>Deep Blue Sea</i> Made Animal-Attack Movies Self-Aware — Bill Bria

20 Years Ago, Lake Placid and Deep Blue Sea Made Animal-Attack Movies Self-Aware

Jul 16th, 2019

Human beings have a natural fear of animal attacks, a fear that horror movies have exploited since cinema began. At first they tended to be extinct...

<i>Shaft</i>: The Genre-Hopping Franchise — Bill Bria

Shaft: The Genre-Hopping Franchise

Jun 13th, 2019

A new film entitled Shaft is being released this month, and thus the Shaft series joins the rare and dubious club of movie franchises that contain...

EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with 2020 Presidential Candidate Godzilla

May 29th, 2019

Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Biden, O’Rourke, Harris, Yang. Uh ... I wanna say Islee? Is that one? The list of Democratic candidates for the 2020...

Tribeca Report: Women Take Control

May 6th, 2019

As is increasingly the case in modern cinema, groups underrepresented onscreen are having their stories told more frequently and more honestly than...