Karen Allen

A ‘salt of the Earth’ Missouri woman on vacation in Paris slowly gives in to the advances of a pushy–and very much married–French yuppie. Will their unconventional romance last until September, when she must return home?Read More »

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At the climax of the spirited teen gangland film, one that unevenly blends together nostalgia and a story of urban angst, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin'” blares out of a Folk City club and signals the beginning of a possibly new enlightened era for the country. The episodic rock’n’roll film passionately directed by Philip Kaufman (“The White Dawn”/”The Right Stuff”/”Quills”) is good at getting at the symbolic changes that took place in its Bronx, Fordham Road, setting, in 1963, and the swagger of teen gangs and their problematic upbringing and aimless street-life existence, but its character depictions, gang rumbles and racial healing scenes are pure Hollywood hokum. The crudely entertaining cultish comedy/drama, strongly driven by a great golden oldies score (including songs such as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “You Really Got A Hold On Me,” The Contours’ “Do You Love Me,” the Shirelles’ “Soldier Boy,” and the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out”), is based on the novel by Richard Price and is co-written by Kaufman and his wife Rose.Read More »

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Academy Award-winner William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) directs Al Pacino as an undercover cop pitched into New York’s seedy underbelly in Cruising – available for the first time on Blu-ray in a brand new director-approved transfer.

New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who is preying on the patrons of the city’s underground bars. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) tasks young rookie Steve Burns (Pacino) with infiltrating the S&M subculture to try and lure the killer out of the shadows – but as he immerses himself deeper and deeper into the underworld, Steve risks losing his own identity in the process.Read More »

A 1980 psychological thriller film directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name, by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, about a serial killer targeting gay men, in particular those associated with the S&M scene.
Poorly reviewed by critics, Cruising was a modest financial success, though the filming and promotion were dogged by gay rights protesters. The title is a play on words with a dual meaning, as “cruising” can describe police officers on patrol and also cruising for sex.Read More »

Young man is sucked into an unnamed religious cult by beautiful girl and gets increasingly under the mind control of the cult leader. After his parents fail in their efforts to talk him out of it, they hire a guy who kidnaps and then de-programsRead More »

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All George Dunlap (Albert Finney) wants to do is to give his 13-year-old daughter a typewriter for her birthday. It is hardly the impossible dream; it isn’t even an unreasonable request. But George recently walked out on his wife Faith (Diane Keaton) and their four daughters, for all those vague but somehow imperative reasons for which people leave people these days, and Daughter Sherry (Dana Hill) is not buying any of them. Nor is she covering her confusion with forgiveness. Better just not to speak to the creep. When Faith tries to avoid a scene by keeping George out of their handsome old Marin County house, George breaks in and pounds up the stairs to confront his eldest. She fights off his blend of bewildered love and rage. He spanks her. She threatens him with a scissors. They end in a sodden tangle of bodies and emotions on her bed.Read More »