Not all of Paul Schrader’s movies are pitiless examinations of masculinity in crisis, but when one of them kicks off with Bo Diddley singing ‘I’m A Man’, you’d better believe that’s a statement. Now reissued on Powerhouse, Blue Collar is the tale of three car factory workers who hatch a […]
Reviews
Charley Varrick (1973) The casual appeal of Walter Matthau (Review)
Powerhouse’s new Blu-Ray of Don Siegel’s 1973 thriller Charley Varrick comes with the impressive set of extras this label has set as a standard for their reissues of cult films. Sometimes, though, the information you get from those extras doesn’t quite tally up. The feature-length making-of documentary Last of the […]
Phenomena (1985) Dario Argento side steps the Giallo to bring the wildest and most fun horror of his career (Review)
Whether or not he was the best director remains to be seen, when the topic of the Giallo comes up one of the first names to come up is Dario Argento. Even if his career took a near-legendary nosedive in the early 1990s, his peak stands among the best runs […]
New World (2013) The Perfect entry point to Korean Gangster Movies (Review)
Crime movies are a captivating microcosm, there are vast differences to be found depending on where in the world a specific title was made. When you go further afield than America and the UK, there are big differences to be found. Hong Kong Crime Movies saw the ascendancy of a […]
The Apartment (1960) Billy Wilder and the rebellion in Romance (Review)
In a 1995 interview packaged as part of Arrow Academy’s new restoration of The Apartment, Billy Wilder remembers a scene from David Lean’s Brief Encounter, a ‘black and white, very simple’ movie that he considers one of that director’s greatest. He and I have very different memories of it. In […]
78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (2017) Whether it is a glorified extra or a film of its own right remains to be seen (Review)
Is there a scene more ingrained into the popular consciousness than the shower scene from Psycho? That question is answered by Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe in his film 78/52. He applies a laser focus on those 78 setups and 52 cuts to discuss this watershed moment for horror from every […]
Pulp (1972) The Michael Caine Noir that counts Jarvis Cocker and JG Ballard among its fans (Review)
It is a film about the abuse of a young girl by people in positions of power and the cover-up this corruptible high society instigate to ensure they are never held to account for the crime they have committed. It is a film that concludes with the answers being found […]
The Cremator (1968) an absolute essential to watch for all Czech New Wave Fans (Review)
Opening on extreme close-ups of a leopard trapped within a cage, Juraj Herz’s ‘The Cremator’ is the cinematic equivalent of a black hole, it sucks the audience into the warped imagination of Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský), who is out on a day trip with his family. On paper, that doesn’t […]
Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971) a deliciously stylish melodramatic Occult Hammer Horror (Review)
It’s nearly Christmas, so let us think of those less fortunate than us: specifically, the Mummy. Even before this summer’s Tom Cruise-led flop, ol’ bandage face had a chequered screen history. The 1932 Universal feature had Boris Karloff in front of the camera, Karl Freund behind and a certain topicality […]
The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976) The arty yet exploitative end of the video nasties list (Review)
Newly released as a stand-alone Blu-Ray by Arrow, The Witch Who Came From the Sea was previously part of Arrow’s American Horror Project Vol. 1 along with Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood and The Premonition. It’s a much less comfortable fit within the horror genre than those two films, displaying a mix […]