The Velvet Vampire (1971)

I think I’d only come across The Velvet Vampire (1971) with some critics citing it as a reference point to Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (though I don’t think it was an actual influence on Biller’s film; it exists in the same milleu and vibe that The Love Witch is creating). That, and as one […]

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012)

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012) might be a sequel but it’s also a resetting. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are the game pieces but the board has changed (even Andrei Arlovski from the previous sequel is another refashioned game piece). After making an impressively gritty, muscular action film out of a DTV franchise […]

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Peter Weller is such an interesting actor and it’s shame his most iconic role, Robocop, basically had most of his face and body covered up. Watching him act, particularly in the early 1980s, there’s such a loose, wired energy to his physicality, complimented by his sonorous voice. The film, Of Unknown Origin (1983), is marketed […]

Amarcord (1973)

I really became swept up in Amarcord’s (1973) approach to depicting a place, a time, a memory. Directed by Federico Fellini, and while not strictly autobiographical, the film is based on his memories growing up, set in the village of Borgo San Giulano during the 1930s and Benito Mussolini’s Fascism. Rather than having one character […]

Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971)

I do like the exchange between monthly Criterion Channel programming and people I follow on Letterboxd tending to watch the same stuff, like a slowly crawling communal experience. I’d heard the title Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971) but didn’t really have any idea what it was like, assuming it was a tongue in cheek […]