Harlequin (1980)

I remember either my parents or a member of the family had the video of Harlequin (1980), and it always fascinated me, that painted harlequin face on the cover. Shot in Western Australia but the film’s producers keep it vague for the international markets: all the cops and security guards talk with American accents. The […]

Eureka (1983)

I remember stumbling across Nicolas Roeg’s film Eureka (1983) one late night on television and being blown away by the listed cast and the amazing first act documenting a prospector Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) searching for gold in the snowy mountains. I think I had to go to bed and missed out on the rest […]

The Blackout (1997)

Continuing my deep dive into the back catalogue of Abel Ferrara, The Blackout (1997) is a film of two halves, which combine to form a portrait of addiction. The opening sets up a hedonistic LA lifestyle with movie star Matty (Matthew Modine) returning home from a film shoot, ready to reunite with his girlfriend Annie […]

Siberia (2020)

I’ve recently been following up the work of director Abel Ferrara and catching up on the films I haven’t seen (Mary, Driller Killer, Welcome To New York, Fear City). When Revelation Film Festival announced its online festival, COUCHED, which ran during July this year, and that one of its selected films was Siberia (2020), one […]

Exotica (1994)

Atom Egoyan’s early work was a regular fixture on SBS Saturday Cult Movie night and him, alongside Hal Hartley, defined a certain indie cinema aesthetic pre-Tarantino. I remember Egoyan’s break-out arthouse hit Exotica (1994) being advertised as an erotic thriller, posters and video boxes using the imagery of Mia Kirshner’s character dancing in a school […]