The Villainess (2017)

The South Korean action film The Villainess (2017; Ak Nyeo) starts out high octane with a POV action sequence that’s like a video game (POV action doesn’t really do it for me, I think for action to be gripping you need to see the protagonist in the action) but once the camera whips around to […]

Youth Of The Beast (1963)

Always great when a film from an older decade feels contemporary in its energy. Youth Of The Beast (1963; Yajū no seishun) is very snappy and vibrant, a Yazuka gangster movie about a mysterious stranger Joe (Joe Shishido – who I only discovered now had cheek implants to help his career and thus his very […]

Wheelman (2017)

If you couldn’t get enough of films about get away drivers, there’s a Netflix Original called Wheelman (2017) starring Frank Grillo. Even though it looks like Drive and feels like an 80s Michael Mann thing, it’s more like Locke in that you are stuck in a car, watching an actor negotiate over the phone while […]

Black Moon Rising (1986)

Black Moon Rising (1986) had a video cover that was always in my mind’s eye and even though it was scripted by one of my favourite directors, John Carpenter, took me a very long time to actually see what it was all about. Turns out that it’s a great Eighties super-car B-movie that has everything […]

Caged Heat (1974)

Caged Heat (1974) was written and directed by a young Jonathan Demme for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Working within the lurid ‘women in prison’ genre with all that entails, the movie is a cut above due to its singular characters (such as Barbara Steele’s imposing yet strange warden), surreal dream sequences, broad jokes, and […]