Go Go Tales (2007)

Abel Ferrara makes a comedy, Go Go Tales (2007), which is set in a go-go joint strip club, a project he’d always wanted to make, describing it as “Cheers meets The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie.” Much like Cassavettes’ film, Go Go Tales sees the strip club as a metaphor for filmmaking, for creative expression […]

Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962)

Only having seen One Sings, The Other Doesn’t, I was excited to explore further the career of director Agnes Varda. Taking advantage of the ‘Voila Varda’ section on the expanded Mubi library, I was finally able to watch her film, Cleo From 5 To 7 (1962; Cléo de 5 à 7), a classic of the […]

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

A musical tribute to the classic Beatles album but with The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton singing the songs – without much change or interpretation in delivery. This is what Robert Stigwood (producer of hit film musicals like Tommy, Saturday Night Fever and Grease) gambled on with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), resulting […]

The Last Dragon (1985)

My favourite moment in Motown producer Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) is when a packed movie theatre showing Enter The Dragon is interrupted randomly by two break-dancers and a boom-box, who are then shouted down and told to leave. Right before the unforgettable Sho’nuff (played by Julius J. Carry III in an indomitable performance) […]

Her Smell (2018)

If The Rose was Bette Midler performing an unofficial Janis Joplin biopic, Her Smell (2018) feels like a fictional take on Courtney Love and Hole. However, director-writer Alex Ross Perry has said his true inspiration for the character of Becky Something (Elisabeth Moss) and her rock band Something She, which is set in the 1990s […]