// Category Archive for: Reviews

DVD Review: Into The White

By Jemiah Jefferson

I won’t lie—I was interested in seeing this film because it’s one of the post-Harry Potter performances by everyone’s favorite snub-nosed ginger, Rupert Grint, now quite grown up and no longer shackled to the limitations of being good-guy sidekick Ron Weasley (who, admittedly, is a vastly more tolerable character on screen than in the novels, thanks to the talents of Mr. Grint). I have yet to see the other “adult” roles Rupert Grint has done, but he more than holds his own in this admirable historical European indie.

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DVD Review: My Amityville Horror

By Brad Henderson

Some look at The Amityville Horror as just a movie. It has been dismissed many times by many people, but no one can deny that something happened in that house; whatever it may be, something happened. Recently, IFC Films released a documentary that focuses on Daniel Lutz, the oldest of the children in the Lutz family, and his story and confessions on what happened during those 28 terrifying days spent at 112 Ocean Avenue.

I’m one of those that believe that some of the events that were “recorded” actually happened in that house. I do believe that George Lutz was full of shit and that they fabricated a lot to sell their story. However, I also believe that certain events occurred, and then the family just went with it.

In My Amityville Horror, Daniel Lutz tells his side of the story, and he sells it. Yeah, he could be bullshitting, but the way he speaks is very convincing. If he is lying, he is the best liar in the world.

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Blu-Ray Review: Antiviral

By Brad Henderson

How far would people go to be closer to their favorite celebrity? We already know society is obsessed with celebrities, with mimicking their features and hair. Come on, you have seen this: Aniston’s hair, Jolie’s lips, Lopez’s buttocks, and the list keeps going. This is the basis of the story that Brandon Cronenberg follows with Antiviral, but he takes it to the next level.

Brandon Cronenberg (yes, David Cronenberg’s son) delivers a haunting look into the obsession with celebrities and the public and how far people will go to be like their idols.

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Movie Review: The Conjuring

By Lisa Anderson

Sometimes, even a well-made horror movie can be left in the theater. You can see it and then go home and head straight for bed, without averting your glance from your mirrors or imagining the film’s antagonist sliding through the dark of your room. Horror movie fans, especially, do not lose sleep over most horror movies, or find themselves haunted by them days later.

The Conjuring was not such a movie for me, and it may not be for you either.

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Music Review: Minks, Tides End

By Less Lee Moore

On their second album, Tides End, Minks have created a distinctively ’80s UK-pop feeling. But they’re not Depeche Mode or Duran Duran (not that there’s anything wrong with that). On these ten songs Minks are more reminiscent of bands like The Korgis or Close Lobsters, with the quirky synth sounds of pre-Different Class era Pulp adding a unique element of modernity. There’s also no shortage of New Order-esque guitar. Oddly, Sonny Kilfoyle, who is Minks on this album for all intents and purposes, lives in Long Island.

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Music Review: The Fun Boy Three, The Fun Boy Three

By Melissa Bratcher

The re-release of The Fun Boy Three’s eponymous debut album makes for fascinating, exhausting listening. A mix of musical styles—ska, rocksteady, jazz, dancehall—primitive percussion, sharp horns, and smart harmonies, it all seems so light and pleasant. Until you listen to the lyrics. Politically aware and a capsule of the fear and paranoia of Thatcher’s Britain in the early 1980s, these are not songs for a blithe singalong. Which is good.

Hatching fully formed from the forehead of The Specials after feeling creatively stifled, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, and Neville Staples created something bold. These songs didn’t need to be arranged for horns and female vocalists (though on several tracks they are joined by Bananarama, to great effect) and the result is stripped down and innovative. The Fun Boy Three sounds immediate still.

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Music Review: Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980 – 1989

By Stuart Myerburg

Scared To Get Happy takes on the daunting task of documenting the evolution of indie-pop in the 1980s. Given the diversity of styles that can fall under the indie-pop umbrella, a comprehensive study of all facets of the genre would be nearly impossible, especially in the span of five discs. But the compilation makes things more manageable by limiting its scope. Focusing exclusively on British artists and evoking a particular time and place in musical history, it endeavors to tell a story rather than be a definitive guide.

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DVD Review: The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

By Less Lee Moore

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is the feature film debut of Rodrigo Gudiño, founder of Rue Morgue magazine. It hearkens back to the Gothic thrillers of the 1960s but it isn’t a period piece. It’s more of a slow burn than most slow burning films, but once it catches flame it becomes genuinely sinister.

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Movie Review: Berberian Sound Studio

By Less Lee Moore

Berberian Sound Studio is a wonderfully self-reflexive film. It is as much about the effects of cinema as it is about the special effects that go into creating it. These ideas converge in Gilderoy, a British sound engineer who moves to Italy in the 1970s to work on The Equestrian Vortex, a giallo concerning black magic rituals.

Gilderoy, imbued with fragile realism by Toby Jones, is a fish so far out of the water that he’s gasping for air on the first day of his employment, ostracized by language and cultural barriers that he’s too polite and timid to overcome. His discomfort is so palpable as to be excruciating. He’s also uncomfortable with the subject matter of the film, which involves drowning, stabbing, hair pulling, and hot pokers shoved inside of women. Director Peter Strickland never shows us the harrowing scenes that trouble Gilderoy’s psyche; we see their impact on his face and eventually his entire persona, as he becomes completely unraveled both physically and mentally.

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DVD Review: Kiss Of The Damned

By Less Lee Moore

If anything could be more thrilling and sexy than Kiss of the Damned, it would be the fact that this is writer and director Xan Cassevetes’s first film. The daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, her pedigree is as assured as her talent.

Kiss of the Damned is the vampire movie that we’ve all been waiting for, engorged with atmosphere, sex, betrayal, and blood. It’s indebted to films like Daughters of Darkness, The Hunger, and the oeuvres of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Yet it feels fresh and invigorating and not like a retread at all.

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