Tag: cinephile
Brian Yuzna’s Society: Satirical Body Horror at its Best
Embracing the issue of class-consciousness with aplomb, and thankfully devoid of contemporary horror’s current preoccupation with CGI, Society (1989) is not only a divine slice of body horror, but also a fascinating polemic on the social mores of Reaganite America. Billy (Billy Warlock) is a basketball jock, festooned with an obligatory mullet, who despite enjoying…
The Three Quarter Mark: The Best (And Worst) Films and Performances of 2014 Thus Far
I tried. No one can say I didn’t try. In the waning days of September, I travelled across Australia. I visited the strange, mythical Cheesebridge, England. I pretty much toured the whole damn world with Simon Pegg. No one can say I didn’t go out looking for movies that would let me conclude the first…
Movie Trailers: Bad Previews and the Misrepresentation of Films
Remember that great line from Shakespeare’s King Lear that opines: “The worst is not. So long as we can say ‘This is the worst’”? It’s not true. I recently attended a showing of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) in New York’s Times Square where a nearly uncountable number of loud, obnoxious previews appeared before the…
The Chapter Film: In Honour of the Portmanteau
Mise en scene. Montage. Auteur. The French really like writing and theorising about movies, and thus have bequeathed many terms unto the film lexicon. And I am just pretentious enough to toss them around without regard for whosoever may be rolling their eyes. But there’s one French term to which I have never taken. Portmanteau.…
Life Itself: A Roger Ebert Primer
Steve James’ Life Itself, a documentary about the life of internationally recognised Pulitzer Prize winning film-critic, Roger Ebert, was always going be subject to high expectations – especially given his unfettered access to Ebert in the months leading up to his passing. The good news is that, generally speaking, James manages to live up to…