Peter Bogdanovich is a director in love with cinema itself, and that’s encapsulated best in his ode to the Golden Era, 1971’s The Last Picture Show. Outside of its reminiscences towards a way of life that may never have existed outside of an Andy Hardy movie, Bogdanovich deconstructs the American family, the small town, and…
Being on the brink of nuclear war is a niche our country has occupied as long as I’ve been alive. In the late ’70s though the concept felt all too real as nuclear warheads proliferated other countries and the Cold War lumbered to life. But with our eyes trained firmly across the ocean, a grander…
As much as I hate to let my Americanism show, it crops up the worst when it comes to cinema. I don’t have a natural aversion to foreign cinema, but Britain is usually my go-to foreign country. The few times I do venture outside English it’s generally through the horror genre. Director Jacques Demy has…
This review originally ran December 10th, 2012. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is my favorite Rankin-Bass production that has fun songs, and a memorable villain! Tonight’s film is a television movie, but it’s an iconic Christmas film which holds a place in most people’s hearts. It’s the Rankin-Bass 1970 movie Santa Claus is…
Originally published December 3rd, 2014 A double post to catch me up, and another Christmas first-time viewing! Tonight’s film is the Jim Henson 1977 movie Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. I’d heard people rave about how fantastic this television movie is, that it was one of Henson’s best, and how hard it was to find. I…
I always try to include a more contemporary horror master in my 31 Days of Horror. Last year I reviewed Tobe Hooper’s borderline offensive cult classic The Funhouse (1981). This year’s Master of Horror is the dearly departed Wes Craven and his 1977 jaunt into the desert, The Hills Have Eyes. I went into this…
I’ve reviewed a few films from that no-frills purveyor of splashy horror American-International Pictures, or AIP. The studio known for putting old studio stars in sometimes sexy, always ridiculous splatterfests enters the “Grand Dame Guignol” market with Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? This Hansel and Gretel-inspired horror film takes Shelley Winters at her flashiest, if that’s even…
