Support The Girls (2018)

A friend working in a video store (shout-out to Kirsten!) lent me a preview DVD that contained director Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha Ha. We both loved that movie and became mublecore fans. But there was always something about Bujalski, particularly now as his movies appear more like mainstream comedies like Results, he still retains a […]

Psycho II (1983)

Now this is a legacy sequel! Psycho II (1983) was actually a box office hit, from what I’ve read, and exists nicely at this cross-section of eras and influences: obviously 1960s Hitchcock, but also 1970s Network TV Mystery Of The Week and 1980s Slasher Sequels. While an unnecessary sequel to a genre-defining classic twenty years […]

The Woman Who Ran (2020)

I’ve not seen any of South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s work – he’s made like over twenty moderately budgeted movies – before The Woman Who Ran (2020), which appealed to me because it was available on SBS On Demand and it was only 77 minutes long. The first thing I can say: zooms. A camera […]

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) belongs undeniably to a sleazy exploitation category, the “women in prison” sub-genre. Yet if you can stomach that grubbiness, this entry proves to be an artistic triumph because of two strong elements: (1) the theatrical and surreal style that director Shunya Ito (his debut film!) brings to it, and (2) […]

Written On The Wind (1956)

Quite a contrast to grow up with Robert Stack as an older guy in a trenchcoat walking out of the night to host Unsolved Mysteries on TV and to see him young as the alcoholic, suicidal son of a Texas oil baron in Written On The Wind (1956) with the most intense eyes ever. Directed […]