Author: James Curnow
How Michael Bay taught me to stop hating Spielberg and start hating Michael Bay
As a young film student just out of school, I once shared the usual contempt that all serious film connoisseurs were expected to display for Steven Spielberg. From young students to senior lecturers, everybody I knew agreed that Steven Spielberg was the leading auteur of a kind of ‘lesser’ cinema, centred on spectacle, devastation and…
A Melburnian Aussie in an American Grocery Store!
You’ll have to excuse me for a moment while I make an incredibly tenuous connection between my 20km trek to Melbourne’s USA Foods grocery store and my relationship with cinema! No American will ever understand the complex relationship that a non-American cinephile has with American junk food. We all know about Twinky’s and In-N-Out burgers, but few of us have had…
Wake in Fright: An Australian Nightmare
As an Australian, I can attest to the fact that we see ourselves as a largely amicable bunch, even if we do tend to engage in levels of alcohol consumption that would be considered abhorrent in most places on earth. This is probably the reason that when Wake in Fright originally hit cinemas back in…
Haiku Ode to Action Cinema: Poetry on Screen
Haiku gives respect Action films elevated Ten classic movies RoboCop Resurrected man Visions of a life now gone The name is Murphy Terminator Tech-noir nightmare art Hell arrives from the future Harlan Ellison Predator Invisible beast Screaming souls in the jungle Ugly mother-fu… Out for Justice Seagal talks Brooklish Anybody seen Richie? Excess violence…
In Honour of a Classic: Road House
“This place has a sign hangin’ over the urinal that says, “Don’t eat the big white mint.” – Wade Garrett I’d like to take a quick moment to remember the frequently belittled classic, Road House (1989), featuring the underappreciated acting talents of the late Patrick Swayze, the brilliant Sam Elliot and the recently departed acting…