Fortress (1992)

Fortress (1992) is one of those movies from my youth that I never sat through from start to finish, but feel like I absorbed through osmosis. It was always on TV, and flipping between channels, I usually caught key scenes. Much like Escape From Absolom and Wedlock, Fortress feels like the moderately budgeted children of […]

Vanya On 42nd Street (1994)

My main knowledge of the Anton Chekov play Uncle Vanya is through its rehearsal and performance in the Japanese film, Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. I have always been aware of Vanya On 42nd Street (1994), a film adaptation of Vanya that reunited actors and playwrights Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, with the […]

Issue 20: Cities

“Find a city, find myself a city to live in” – Talking Heads.Issue 20 of VHS Tracking is sets its sights on “Cities” as its theme.An A5 fold-out double-paged zine of movie recommendations with risograph printing from Neighbourhood Press.The issue’s terrific artwork is by Hannah Coakley based on The Florida Project.Contributing writers include: Hannah Coakley, […]

Round About Midnight (1999)

Hiroyuki Sanada is a recognisable Japanese actor from Hollywood productions like The Last Samurai and John Wick 4, always giving a sense of dignity and substance to even mainstream action cinema clearly beneath his talents (Bullet Train, Mortal Kombat remake). In previous decades, there were leading roles in Japanese cinemas throughout the 1980s onwards. Round […]

Carts Of Darkness (2008)

I had never heard of the documentary Carts Of Darkness (2008) until Chris Cobilis wrote about it for a past issue of the VHS Tracking zine; recently, another friend, Coel, also recommended it. The film itself is only an hour long, and is available to stream for free on YouTube (and is also on Tubi). […]