It’s fitting that the most iconic image from the films of David Cronenberg is the exploding head from Scanners (1981). Cronenberg’s stories contain so many complex ideas and themes that any single attempt to wrap one’s head around them seems a risky prospect. And yet, the popular consensus...

Superman (called Superman: The Movie in advertising) was released on Dec. 15, 1978, but it was supposed to come out in June to coincide more closely with the 40th anniversary of the big guy's April 1938 comic book debut. Buried in that factoid is the realization that Superman: The Movie is now as...

Christmas stories and tales of space exploration both appeal to an audience’s sense of wonder, so it’s only natural that filmmakers have occasionally gone to both wells simultaneously. There’s a world of difference, however, between crass kiddie fare like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians...

According to Hollywood lore and its IMDb trivia page, Twins was dreamt up during a desperate bathroom break by two writers whose only prepared pitch had just been shot down. I can’t find a credible source for that, but do I really need one? Have you seen Twins? Have you seen the poster for...

The title Christmas Evil (also released as You Better Watch You) does not promise a complex psychological drama, and anyone going into Lewis Jackson’s 1980 holiday horror movie probably doesn’t expect anything more than a guy in a Santa suit killing people. Jackson does get around to that...

Every year, I revisit my favorite film franchise, Rocky. Every year, I’m questioned by those around me why I feel the need to do so. “Why do you feel the need to watch the same 14 hours of content every year?” my girlfriend would say. “Isn’t today’s America a little too complicated...

You know how some movies end with freeze-frames of each of the main characters and a brief summary of where their lives went after that? And you know how most movies don't do that but should? We want to fix that. We'll start with A Christmas Story. (We're ignoring the two sequels, which cancel each...

It’s a specific kind of agony: You’re holding court at a party and synopsizing your favorite episode of Clarissa Explains It All. Naturally, everyone is interested, but then you go and accidentally call Melissa Joan Hart “Melissa Michelle Gellar.” The party guests’ faces fall. It’s bad....

I have a VHS problem. They are my Chapstick; bought frequently, replaced before sufficient use, and lost from my pockets as collateral damage when I retrieve change overzealously. Adventures in Home Video™ is an attempt to subsidize that problem and justify its consuming ruin by digging into...

Much has been said about the relationship between Luca Guadagnino’s new remake of Suspiria and Dario Argento’s 1977 original. Guadagnino has taken the skeleton of the story — which concerns an American who joins a prestigious German dance academy only to discover it’s run by a coven of...

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. G.I. Joe. Transformers. Thundercats. Smurfs. M.A.S.K. Rainbow Brite. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My Buddy. Cabbage Patch Kids. These are just a few toy lines that were popular, along with their attendant multimedia franchises, in the second half of the...

Armistice Day 2018 — at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, when the guns fell silent over Europe. WWI ushered in an age of profound geopolitical and sociological change. Coincident to the conflict, cinema was entering an...

Fifty years ago, at the height of their popularity as television personalities and platinum-selling recording artists, The Monkees — Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork — attempted to break free from the strictures of the personae that had been crafted for them over the...

In Mexico, the Día de Muertos tradition celebrates life, but also the travels of the dearly departed. Here are three death-themed Mexican films that prioritize spiritual clarity and cultural education, each in its own unique way. México Bárbaro (2014, on Netflix) provocatively captures Día de...

In the 35 years Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes were married (from 1954 until his death in 1989), she starred in seven of the dozen features he directed and appeared un-billed in two others. With their outsized characterizations and heightened emotions (fueled, more often than not, by heavy...