USA

  • Ate de Jong – Highway to Hell (1992)

    1991-2000Ate de JongFantasyHorrorUSA

    Quote:
    Charle (Rob Lowe’s affably boyish younger brother Chad) and Rachel (delectable blonde hottie Kristy Swanson, who originated the part of everyone’s favorite bloodsucker-stomping high school cheerleader in the flop movie “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) are a sweetly pure and innocent young couple who make the usual mistake of driving down a remote desert dirt road. When Rachel gets abducted by the pernicious superhuman fiend Hellcop (hulking C.J. Graham; Jason in “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives”), Charlie literally has to go to hell to rescue Rachel within twenty-four hours or otherwise the Devil (a smoothly sneaky and ingratiating Patrick Bergin) will have her soul for all eternity.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke & Robert J. Flaherty – White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)

    1921-1930DramaRobert J. FlahertySilentUSAW.S. Van DykeW.S. Van Dyke and Robert J. Flaherty

    Unscrupulous trader Sebastian has little trouble cheating the inhabitants of the South Seas paradise and leading the natives to adopt some of the more unfortunate habits of “civilized” men. He has little opposition save Dr. Matthew Lloyd, once an educated and prominent physician but now smothered in the depths of alcoholic deterioration. When Lloyd goes too far in his attempts to thwart the success of the trader’s greedy plots, Sebastian sees to it that the doctor is framed for a crime and sentenced to be cast adrift tied to the wheel of a derelict ship.Read More »

  • James Benning – Stemple Pass (2012)

    2011-2020DocumentaryExperimentalJames BenningUSA

    Quote:
    Benning, like Kaczynski a mathematician who came of age in a working-class Midwestern family in the late 1950s/early 1960s, was able not only to get hold of Kaczynski’s secret journals but also managed to decipher their code (giving added significance to the filmmaker’s reprise of his subject’s words: “FBI, suck my cock!”).Read More »

  • Irving Rapper – The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)

    1941-1950AdventureDramaIrving RapperUSA

    Plot:
    He was a riverboat pilot, reporter, penniless prospector, Civil War dropout, would-be entrepreneur, loving family man, world traveler, pomposity burster and raconteur. It turns out the man who created adventures for Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and a Connecticut Yankee led a mighty adventurous life himself. “Truth is a very valuable thing,” says Fredric March’s Mark Twain. “I believe we should be economical with it.” And that sets the tone for what follows: a lovingly crafted Hollywoodized biopic tracing the immortal humorist’s life from Hannibal boyhood to Big River exploits to global literary lion and more. Riverboat’s a-comin’, hop aboard – with Tom, Huck, Jim and above all, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. From Warner Brothers!Read More »

  • Martin Donovan – Collaborator (2011)

    2011-2020DramaMartin DonovanUSA

    The career of dramatist Robert is in steep decline – his last play was canceled after a two-week run. On top of that he is unable to decide what to do about an old love affair that is once again gaining steam. Finally, his neighbor Gus is able to shed some light on many issues when he and Robert spend the evening together in a highly unexpected situation. The picture captures the protagonists at fragile moments in their lives, when long suppressed truths come to light and there is no longer any uncertainty concerning the decisions they have made. Read More »

  • Alfonso Cuarón – A Little Princess (1995)

    1991-2000Alfonso CuarónDramaFantasyUSA

    Plot:
    When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara’s creativity and sense of self- worth. Sara’s belief that “every girl’s a princess” is tested to the limit, however, when word comes that her father was killed in action and his estate has been seized by the British government.Read More »

  • Sasha Waters Freyer – Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable (2018)

    ArthouseDocumentarySasha Waters FreyerUSA

    A documentary about an important American still photographer who captured New York City in the 1960s (his work there is said to have influenced the TV show Mad Men) and later the West in Texas and Los Angeles.

    Slant Magazine wrote:

    Detailing Garry Winogrand’s rise to prominence in the 1960s photographing the streets of New York and later Texas and California, Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable also covers various epochs in the American art world and politics and culture at large. As the documentary reminds us, Winogrand started his career in the ‘50s as a freelance photojournalist and advertising photographer. Read More »

  • Daniel Mann – Five Finger Exercise (1962)

    1961-1970Daniel MannDramaUSA

    Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming
    A distinguished cast highlights this film adaptation of a stage drama by Peter Shaffer. Stanley Harrington (Jack Hawkins) is a self-made businessman incapable of expressing his emotions or compromising with others; his wife Louise (Rosalind Russell) imagines herself an intellectual, though her intelligence is more of an affectation than a reality. Stanley and Louise hire Walter (Maximilian Schell), a teacher from Germany, as a tutor for their two teenage children, effeminate Philip (Richard Beymer) and high-strung Pamela (Annette Gorman). Walter tries to ingratiate himself with the family, with little success; when he tries to get to know Louise better, she imagines that he’s fallen in love with her, and she’s deeply hurt when he confesses that he instead sees her as a motherly figure. Walter is eventually driven to the brink of suicide, which forces the family to reconsider their attitudes toward Walter and each other.Read More »

  • Tim Burton – Ed Wood (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyCultTim BurtonUSA

    Ode to a Director Who Dared to Be Dreadful

    “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s very good film about a very bad film maker, has a cheerful defiance that would surely have appealed to Orson Welles, who was Ed Wood’s hero. Late in the film, Welles appears (played deftly by Vincent d’Onofrio, who really looks like him) to advise Wood that independence is everything and that an artist’s visions are worth fighting for. Mr. Burton, currently Hollywood’s most irrepressible maverick, has taken that credo to heart. Read More »

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