I’ve seen enough Rob Zombie movies to know that you never should accept a ride from Bill Moseley, no matter how genuine his “aw, shucks” demeanor seems. Young Mara (unknown Michelle Page) either didn’t know this, or was simply too caught up trying to spread her deceased father’s ashes at the Rogue River. With her […]
review
Posted inArts & Culture
Dark Crimes
Among the 50 titles here — yes, 50 — are some genuine classics, such as 1950’s D.O.A., Edward G. Robinson in 1947’s The Red House and Samuel Fuller’s The Naked Kiss, but I don’t recommend picking up this massive set for those three, as much better prints can be found from, respectively, Image Entertainment, Film Chest […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Aggression Scale
A Polaroid! Cinematically, that’s a nice touch; realistically, it’s cost-prohibitive. Besides, now that the company has stopped making the instant film, it’s increasingly difficult to find. Paid assassins, take note: It’s never too late to embrace the technological wonder of Instagram. That’s all beside the point. In this Scale, out-on-bail crime lord Bellavance (Ray Wise, […]
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Cinema Verite
How that came to be is depicted in the made-for-HBO film Cinema Verite, directed by the American Splendor team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, with Diane Lane (Secretariat) and Tim Robbins (Green Lantern) respectively starring as Pat and Bill, the heads of the Loud family. Shooting their every move — every highlight, every […]
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Knights of the Round Table
Directed by Richard Thorpe (The Honeymoon Machine), the new Warner Archive release is one of many retellings of the King Arthur legend, complete with the sword Excalibur and the Holy Grail. It’s neither the worst nor the best movie to tackle such rich subject matter, but for whatever reason, this production strips out all instances […]
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The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls
The Wizard of Gore may not be among Lewis’ best, but it’s one of his most notorious. The title character is Montag the Magnificent (Lewis regular Ray Sager), a stage magician who maims and dismembers his hypnotized female “volunteers,” who leave appearing A-OK, only for their wounds to reappear later, this time fatally. Sherry Carson […]
Posted inMusic
Kindest cut
Credit: Anna Lee As leader of the local post-punk outfit Paperscissor, Evan Crowley gets a little metaphorical when describing his band’s intense live shows, which have become a sight to behold. “A painter might know what they want a painting to look like, but they have these happy accidents along the way. That’s how our […]
Posted inMusic
The Black Jack Gypsys — 3:1
This is honest-to-God rock music for which revivalists home and afar have been clamoring — the type of music you imagine spilling out the door of some small, sweaty club on the Sunset Strip in the late ’60s. This is the Mad Max of debut EPs: hot, dangerous and tons of fun. The act opens […]
Posted inMusic
David lean
Singer-songwriter David Ramirez needs only an acoustic guitar to perform his heartrending tunes. Since he can fit all his gear in the front seat of a sedan, his tour expenses are low, meaning he can tour often. But living on the road ensures some gigs will be out of the ordinary. “I was at this […]
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Mimic 3 Film Set
I’ve always found del Toro’s Mimic to be a pretty decent, if disposable, film. But now, with a few extra minutes in his director’s cut, I find Mimic to be a pretty decent, if disposable, film that’s a little bit longer. As Dr. Susan Tyler, Mira Sorvino (remember her?) battles giant cockroaches in the subway […]