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 […]

The Funeral (1996)

Continuing my journey through the filmography of director Abel Ferrara, it was time to dust off the DVD and revisit one of my favourite Christopher Walken performances in The Funeral (1996). Set in the 1930s, the film begins with one of its characters watching a Humphrey Bogart movie. From that point, The Funeral feels like […]

Pusher III (2005)

By the third entry in the Pusher series, there’s an assumed narrative trajectory and familar story pattern: the camera follows the protagonist as they slowly start to get in over their heads with deals and debts. Yet it’s interesting across the three movies how the tone is still uniquely set by the lead character and […]

Rocco And His Brothers (1960)

Sometimes watching an old classic might feel like homework. A three hour black and white movie seems like a heavy undertaking. Then you watch a film of that length and vintage, and the time passes by quicker than you thought because you are deeply invested in the characters and storytelling. So it was with Luchino […]