Game Show Models
Filmmaker David N. Gottlieb famously envisioned Game Show Models (1976) as a vastly different kind of film. Gottlieb’s original film was titled The Seventh Dwarf (who is identified as Happy… Read more »
Leave Her To Heaven
Leave Her To Heaven (1945) is not unlike The Strange Woman (1946) and Desert Fury (1947); a “weepie” or woman’s picture told with traditionally film noir conventions. The enduring popularity… Read more »
Unknown Pleasures
Jia Zhangke’s third feature film Unknown Pleasures (2002) is an intimate portrait of poverty and the growing pains of a China in transition. Set in Datong, a once thriving industrial… Read more »
Humanoids From Atlantis
You really have to admire J.R. Bookwalter’s resolve. He had a script about an aquatic monster but had to shoot in March, prompting him to throw out the screenplay and… Read more »
Humanoids From The Deep
Though primarily a schlocky bit of monster mayhem, Humanoids From The Deep is a classic example of art versus commerce. Director Barbara Peeters originally shot a much more macabre and… Read more »
Boxer
Sometimes when a director is renowned for a specific style it’s almost more interesting to see that filmmaker tackle a more mainstream or traditional project. When I first discovered the… Read more »
The Stunt Man
Richard Rush’s award winning dark comedy The Stunt Man (1980) blurs the boundaries between reality and the imagination of filmmaking within the context of adapting Paul Brodeur’s novel. The plot,… Read more »
Fantastic Mr. Fox
From Bottle Rocket (1996) to The Darjeeling Limited (2007), filmmaker Wes Anderson was moving his aesthetic closer and closer to animation. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is the first time that… Read more »
What Have You Done To Solange?
With the tragic overturning of Roe v. Wade the giallo shocker What Have You Done To Solange? (1972) has a new found relevancy. Though a sensationalist crime thriller, What Have… Read more »
The Balloon
The Balloon (1956) was made at the height of Yuzo Kawashima’s powers and during his most prolific period while working at Nikkatsu studio. The Balloon has all the hallmarks of… Read more »
