The Jericho Mile (1979)

Way before Thief and Heat, Michael Mann’s career-long interest in criminals began with first feature, The Jericho Mile (1979), a television movie made for ABC. Based and shot on location in Folsom Prison, with real life inmates as extras, this is both a prison drama and a sports drama. Focusing on Murphy (a taut, muscular […]

Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965)

I’m a fan of Halloween and spending October watching horror movies, and Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965) was a great place to start – what a title! This British horror anthology film comes from Amicus Studios and naturally stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors starts in a train […]

Defending Your Life (1991)

This might be a generalisation, but it felt like the late-1980s/early-1990s were all about high concept comedies, usually involving time travel, reincarnation, body swapping, and the afterlife. I remember the video cover for the Albert Brooks film, Defending Your Life (1991), but watching it had eluded me until the Albert Brooks collection on the Criterion […]

Dogs In Space (1986)

People have always recommended Dogs In Space (1986) to me and I know for many people it means a lot to them, representing a time and place, the post-punk sub-culture of Melbourne in the late 1970s. It’s also a key cult text in Australian cinema, director Richard Lowenstein bringing one of the biggest rock stars […]

The State Of Things (1982)

I’ve always been curious about The State Of Things (1982; Der Stand der Dinge), a black-and-white movie Wim Wenders directed after his German road movie trilogy. I didn’t realise it was actually something he made while he was on a break having a tough time filming the detective movie Hammett (based on Dashiell Hammett) in […]