It shouldn’t be too surprising at this point that streaming platforms make pretty good career launching pads. Just last week, for example, this column covered the filmmaking debut of Alan Yang, who rose to prominence working on shows for Netflix and Amazon. The distribution system may not be perfect (all those promising new releases can […]
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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 three loosely connected, barely discussed VHS tapes that […]
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A coming-of-age film without a slut is like an ice-cream without sprinkles: there’s just something missing. She’s the ‘easy’ girl who’s the butt of the joke – invited to parties because she makes her stay as welcoming as possible. Take Emily in Palo Alto (2014), the teenaged girl who hides her fears of abandonment by […]
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Desperate men will do desperate things. That may as well be the tagline of director Scott Teems’ latest, The Quarry. Based on the Damon Galgut novel of the same name, the sun-bleached neo-noir follows a nameless man as he hurls himself from one desperate measure to the next, paying no care to those he brings […]
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“Life, every now and then, behaves as if it had seen too many bad movies.” So notes Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) in the opening voice-over of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa (now streaming on Amazon Prime), and he should know; as a screenwriter and filmmaker of a certain age, he’s seen plenty of life, […]
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When Mary Harron’s American Psycho hit theaters twenty years ago, it sent shockwaves through mainstream cinema. It was daring, intelligent, and bolstered by a chillingly charismatic leading performance from Christian Bale as the malevolent Patrick Bateman. But like many films of its ilk, this satirical piece with a fairly clear political message is puzzlingly taken […]
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Tigertail is the feature directorial debut of Alan Yang, who until now has been known more for his visually adventurous work on streaming series like Master of None and Forever. Master of None, in particular, often showed a flair for the cinematic, and portrayed nuanced stories about the immigrant experience (Yang co-wrote several of the […]
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Once again, we’re taking a look at some of the movies on the fringes of the packed VOD and streaming release schedule. This month’s offerings include a pint-sized chef, a deranged marriage counselor, and the corpse of one of America’s worst presidents. The Lost Husband (VOD April 10): There’s a bit of an ersatz Nicholas […]
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In the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic, many of us are grappling with worry and fear. Being forced to forgo social contact, we are maybe reading more, maybe binge watching movies and TV. But we’re also turning our attention inwards, laying bare thoughts of mortality. Death. And even as these thoughts may be unbidden, […]
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Everyone responds to trauma differently. For some, joking about terrible events is the only way to cope, even if those jokes are morbid. For others, it’s about creating something new, using difficult circumstances as the springboard for artistic expression. The most generous possible reading of Corona Zombies, a new “movie” from schlock titan Charles Band […]
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Of all Shakespeare’s plays, Titus Andronicus is undoubtedly the most brutal, and possibly the most overlooked. Its bloodshed is constant: filicide, cannibalism, and rape. Amidst all that cruelty, the figure of Lavinia, a young woman whose attackers raped her and then cut off her tongue and hands to disable her from ever identifying them, is […]
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“I’m not a field agent,” he insists. “I just read books.” And while that might be true, he’s going to have to learn to be a field agent, and do it pretty damn quickly. His name is Turner, and he works for the CIA – or, as it’s more often referenced, “The Company.” But he’s […]
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