Commenting on the ease of writing a review never needs to be brought up because it isn’t relevant. However, any notion of hardship from writing such an article typically comes from a need to evade spoilers. BFI’s Chaplin Essanay’s comedy set is different purely because of how uniform and similar […]
BFi
The Glass Shield (1994) underneath the popcorn-movie surface is a nuanced, astute neo-noir (Review)
African-American cinema’s relationship to the American mainstream is kind of like Halley’s comet; it’s always there, it’s just not always visible. Charles Burnett’s career has lasted long enough to intersect with two major movements in black cinema; he may yet connect with the ongoing one. After all, a lot of the […]
Keyframe Episode 65 – Naruto or Potato
It’s been a strange week with Stan Lee working on another anime series, the return of Muppet Babies, Klonoa getting a movie and some less-than-flattering anime statues. Our featured anime are One Piece Season 13 (#300 to #324), Digimon Season 1 and Inner Sanctums – Quay Brothers: Collected Works 1979 […]
Napoleon (1927) a staggering and audacious work of art (Review)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Harry Belafonte and the overlooked birth of the Neo-Noir (Review)
Hollywood’s Greatest Underdog
The French film Elle, recently selected for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination, is soon to be released next month in America, bringing the name Verhoeven back into the limelight — although, perhaps not in the way that we might expect. Paul Verhoeven elicits controversy. His films are rarely without contention, […]
Paris Blues (1962) Comes to Life with the Jazz and the Style (Review)
Here’s a less-than-fun fact; when Martin Ritt’s Paris Blues was released in 1961, the opening flirtation between Paul Newman and Diahann Carroll would have been a crime in 22 American states. Released on Blu-Ray fifty-five years later as part of the British Film Institute’s Black Star season, it is noticeable […]
Carmen Jones (1954) Influential Black Musical with a weird relationship to race (Review)
Psychomania (1973) Black Magic, Low Budgets and glorious British camp (Review)
Cinema Eclectica 76 – Neon Demon Vs. Dayglo Cenobite
We return from the badlands of the director’s lottery to sink our teeth into something gaudy. Kicking things off is a minority report on the new “Ghostbusters” (spoiler – it’s actually good), before heading into Off The Shelf with “Play On! Shakespeare in Silent Film”, Ron Howard’s “Cocoon” and “Around […]