The eighties was a great time for dumb summer movies — the kind of flicks you want to watch on VHS after a long day of indulging at whatever luxurious summer beach cottage you’ve managed to crash. There are tons of obvious hits in this category, but skip the old shtick and delve deeper into your pal’s childhood tape collection for some truly amazing gems. Read More
The exterior of O Cinema, via facebook.com/pages/O-Cinema/143935142284243
The film scene in Miami is a bit of a drag lately, but that, like so many other things here, seems to be changing — if slowly. Last month, I posted about the totally homegrown Borscht Film Festival, which has proven a booster for locally authored film and music. Now, there might be a place to actually watch it.
When I was a teenager we used to sneak mickeys of rum into the cinema to top off our mega sized Cokes from the snack stand… ah, fond memories. Having left my sketchy drinking days behind me, it is not too often that you can enjoy alcoholic beverages while watching a professional screening. That’s where Open Roof Films comes to the rescue. They host outdoor film screenings in the Amster’dam Brewery parking lot every Thursday night, serving – you guessed it, Toronto’s own locally brewed Amster’dam beer. Read More
In conjunction with their exhibit of his visual works, MOCA sponsored a number of screenings of Dennis Hopper’s films and film works by other artists related to him this month. Read More
I’ve always found it strange that so many children of the mid-80’s define their lives around Speilberg movies like the Indiana Jones trilogy, Goonies, ET, or the Back to the Future series. I mean, those movies were all aimed at tweens, teens, and young adults. If you were born in the 80’s, you were not the target audience for those movies – you probably didn’t see them until a few years after the movies were actually released. So you probably first experienced these “80’s movies” in the mid-90’s.
Typically I hate action movies, but there is a particular category of action movies that I love: action movies starring Angelina Jolie. As lovely as it is to be engrossed by the throes of a psychological mind-f*ck or a deeply moving drama, sometimes it’s nice to sit back, kick up your feet, open a huge bag of popcorn, and watch the bullets fly and the get lost in the smouldering gaze of the eyes of a woman who, despite her controversial choices, possesses such intensity and beauty that when her face flashes on the screen, it is nearly impossible to look away. Read More
I like weird foreign films. I loved the original Insomnia, I adore the work of Takeshi Miike and am a grand appreciator of Mike Leigh’s more degenerate work. So it makes sense then, that I would fall for the cinematic adaptations of author Stieg Larrson and his Millennium Trilogy.
Those of of you not familiar with the literary trilogy’s original title, may recognize the films better as the adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and, the soon-to-be-released, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
Having been sucked in by Noomi Rapace’s starring role as possibly deranged, bisexual punk rock hacker Lisbeth Salander, and the cinematography of Jens Fisher, I threw myself into the rest of the novels and was pleasantly surprised. It’s rare you get a good anti-heroine in literature these days, let alone one that’s Swedish.
The Cinematic Followup kicks just as hard, with Rapace’s tendency towards chameleonic shifts serving her well. The rest of the cast? They’re alright. Michael Nyquist’s Mikael Blomquist serves handily to play the stoic womanizer that the books brought to life, but he’s not going to blow your mind. Then again, it’s not about him, it’s all about the lady.
One can only hope that the upcoming Hollywood remake holds true, but Lord knows it won’t be anywhere near as dark or as pointed. Daniel Craig is as stiff as a board playing James Bond so, in a way, he’s perfect for the role as Blomquist. Then again, Clive Owen would’ve at least brought life to piece.
As for the Hollywood replacement for Lisbeth? If they were smart, they’d invest six months in English lessons for Noomi Rapace. Look for a indie starlet to take the role — my pick would be Miley Cyrus. Stil, the schadenfreude in me would love to see it become Miley’s own I Know Who Killed Me.
Maybe Hollywood will surprise me and not screw it up. They didn’t destroy a long lineage of Hong Kong action remakes or Japanese horror films, right?
I remember watching Memento and thinking how fucking tacky it looked, how stupid Guy Pearce was, and how ridiculous and Bond was a Jaguar in a low budget movie.
I’m a bit of an H.P. Lovecraft fan, but haven’t read anything for a while. Over a recent lunch -due to a discussion about a forthcoming feature in a Swedish magazine on fashion, magic, Kenneth Anger and Alan Moore- Lovecraft came up in the conversation. Read More
New German Cinema is all about Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder. He died in 1982 but is still considered a huge inspiration to young directors. Read More
Madison Brookshire’s East Hollywood Street Series is a collection of short videos, all of which are different realizations of the same score, which is:
Why, oh why, is summer the worst movie theater season for anyone with an IQ higher than a rock? Lucky for us non-neanderthals, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s new film Micmacs is a welcome breath of fresh air during these dreadfully stifling summer blockbuster months. Read More
La Boite Noire is no secret, but damn is it ever good. In Montreal, its Mont-Royal location offers two levels of cinematic heaven, neatly subdivided by category, spanning a rich depth of genres, eras, and styles. Read More
I’m in the various stages of finishing four different documentaries. One is about body image in Liverpool, which I’m making with my Swansea Love Story co-director Leo Leigh. Read More
