I’ve heard the name Tinto Brass thrown around for a number of years but never watched any films he’s made. For these past few months, I’ve been delving into the more risqué side of cinema and watching vintage hardcore and softcore porn. Apparently, Tinto Brass is a “god” when it comes to this stuff, but I have a different outlook on films like this.
Cheeky is a softcore film with a few harder shots but all in all, it’s a silly comedy about a girl looking for an apartment and her boyfriend trying to find out if she actually cheated on him. Yeah, these films don’t have great plots.
As we all know and as I’ve said before: found footage movies usually get an eye roll, which you can hear miles away when those films are announced. Sure, people claim this way of telling a story is just a gimmick, but that is incorrect. I give this method of storytelling praise if it is executed without being used as one. Using found footage to tell a story is special to me in many ways. Mostly it’s because these stories are told from a person’s point of view, which can make something more terrifying and real. That doesn’t happen in all cases, of course, and is not the case with Mr. Jones.
Scream Factory has blessed us with the Blu-Ray of another slasher from the ’80s. Sleepaway Camp is probably the most spoiled horror film to date. I imagine there are people who still haven’t seen it, so I will keep this spoiler free. I don’t agree with the idea that “it’s been out for X amount of years” because we all miss shit. Even I have a number of popular films I haven’t seen yet and I consider myself a huge film buff. We all have those unseen movies and we will eventually get to them.
When Jimi Hendrix’s estate refused permission for writer/director John Ridley to use any of Hendrix’s songs in his movie, it seemed like the film was doomed. Yet, while watching Jimi: All Is By My Side, the lack of original Hendrix music seems nearly irrelevant. Like Todd Haynes did with Velvet Goldmine, his loosely-based-on-David Bowie love letter to glam rock, Ridley manages to make it work. Without the specter of “the hits” looming over the film, All Is By My Side plays like a stadium-filling band performing deep cuts in a tiny club. It’s more snapshots and impressions than a by-the-numbers biography.
Final Exam is one of the slashers that got me into the subgenre. I first came across this film when I was young because I set out to watch every slasher ever made. I still haven’t accomplished that task, but I’m well ahead of the game. Final Exam has always and will forever be in my Top 10 favorite slasher films of all time.
It seems like there are four to five low-budget horror films hitting DVD every week lately, and most of them are not very good. I admire the work and effort that the individuals put into these projects, but at the end of the day you have to ask: Is the film good? Unfortunately, the answer is “no” the majority of the time, but we do get some kickass ones like Scream Park.
At first glance, the afterlife of Hüsker Dü illustrates the cliché “History is written by the winners.” In the quarter-century since the legendary power trio disbanded, drummer and co-songwriter Grant Hart frequently gets depicted as a hapless figure whose drug problems and personal woes overshadow his considerable creative efforts. Every Everything, director Gorman Bechard’s latest documentary, shines a light both on Hart’s heyday and his surprisingly eclectic post-Dü career.
The account of a fictional young poet’s ongoing friendship with one of the world’s most treasured writers could be delightful and illuminating or dreadfully dull. Unfortunately for Meetings With A Young Poet, it’s the latter.
There are people who will love Wrong Cops. Others will probably cringe with embarrassment and/or confusion. Some might even run from the room screaming. These are all normal reactions to a Quentin Dupieux movie. His absurdist humor is certainly not for everyone.
What if I said that Robot Ninja is one of the most important films in the history of cinema? I would be full of shit, but I can tell you that it’s my favorite J.R. Bookwalter film and probably the most fun you could ever have with a title like Robot Ninja.