Please Baby Please (2022)

Director-writer Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please (2022) reminded me of discovering Johnny Suede on SBS when I was young. The discovery of an arthouse American indie cinema morphing together the past and the present, a receptacle for a filmmaker’s fetishes. Empty alleys or street facades. Apartment interiors on a studio set. Creating a whole situation to let make-up, hair, […]

Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)

While the first Slumber Party Massacre held a light satirical bent, with the phallic power drill wielded by the male serial killer, it also gave horror fans what they wanted: nudity and violence. With the sequel, Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), it feels like a parody with how everything is heightened, right down to the […]

Streets Of Fire (1984)

Screened at Luna Cinemas Leederville as part of the Trash Classics season programmed by VHS Tracking. My brother attended the Streets Of Fire (1984) screening because of its trailer: “If the movie is anything like that, it’ll be great!” After the movie, my brother said, “It was good, but it’s like these old movies always run out of […]

The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988)

When I finally watched The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988), I understood clearly why director Penelope Spheeris was hired for Wayne’s World, and to understand even the head-banging culture that Wayne’s World was parodying. This was a decade where pop music was defined by metal’s popularity, from glam rock to […]

The Lure (2015)

In 1980s Poland, two mermaids hear their own siren song: a fair haired boy playing an indie ballad on the shoreline. Leaving the water for the world of humans, the mermaids eventually front their very own synth pop band. Welcome to the horror-musical-fantasy world of The Lure (2015; Córki dancingu), which revolves around a nightclub […]