Category: Articles
A Horror Renaissance: 2013’s greatest nightmares
While much of the world buzzes on about the Oscars, gore-hounds like myself must deal with the despairing knowledge that our genre of preference will continue to go neglected. A true shame, too, for 2013 was a stalwart year for horror, both in the independent circuit and for the oft-neglected studio pictures. With The Conjuring’s…
Dismissing the critic: Seven fallacious arguments against criticism
As digital technology offers countless contrarian voices the opportunity to add their share to the din of popular culture, I thought I’d take a moment to look at the difference between a valid objection and a foolish remark that ought to be dismissed outright. Within the democratised digital world, it is a potentially demoralising reality…
Sampling and homages: The problem with heavy movie lifting
Remember that scene in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987) where a baby carriage clunks down the steps in the middle of a gunfight? I’m just wondering: Did you laugh when you first saw it … because you knew it was lifted from Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925)? De Palma’s inside-movie joke might’ve been a…
Words from Oz: 65 classic Australian movie quotes
Why compile a list of quotes from classic Australian movies? I’m not entirely sure. Nor am I sure that my definition of “classic” will sit well with all aficionados of Australian film – my taste for the ironic appreciation of Ozploitation cinema is not shared by all. However, having compiled this list, I will take…
Remembering Judy Holliday: The shameless self-promotion of Gladys Glover
The sad loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman has me thinking about other actors who have died too soon. From Wallace Reid and Rudolph Valentino through Carole Lombard and Marilyn Monroe. John Cazale and Heath Ledger. There is a litany. And somewhere on that list is Judy Holliday, who died in 1965, at the age of…