I recall finding it boring and tiresome, but I was 15 — what did I know? In the 20-plus years that have intervened, I’ve revisited it several times, each more pleasurably than the last. It’s a film that just gets better with age, and it looks fabulous in its Blu-ray debut. The iconic early scene […]
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Bunny and the Bull
The two entities share director Paul King, here making his feature debut, and a sharp, surrealist approach to comedy. Don’t expect a fairy tale, although the title certainly suggests as much. Stephen (Edward Hogg) is an OCD-inflicted hermit who cannot and will not leave his apartment. Initially, we do not know the reasons, but all […]
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These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue
Rock band Red Wanting Blue has put out eight totally independently. They’ve also played more than 2,000 shows in 14 years. People all over the country know their songs and sing them back at shows. Why has this band not gotten signed? (It’s not for lack of trying.) First-time documentarian Ken Davenport’s “These Magnificent Miles” […]
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Shadow
This Italian-made but English-language thriller is an expectation-subverter, whose opening minutes of beauty belie the ugliness to come. Your first hint rears its head when our hero, David (Jake Muxworthy), stops for a beer in a mountaintop watering hole … where a Ouija board hangs on the wall. The trouble begins when two rednecks (Chris […]
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No One Knows About Persian Cats
And if the authorities had their way, there wouldn’t be any. “In Iran, there are laws against blasphemy, free speech and rock and roll,” screams the opening card of the trailer for “No One Knows About Persian Cats,” the lauded feature film/documentary from Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi. The incredible film shows exactly what Iranians are […]
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Embodiment of Evil
The bearded, beady-eyed, bald Brazilian — aka actor/writer/director José Mojica Marins — dresses in all-black like a past-his-prime TV horror host, complete with cape, medallion, top hat and fingernails so dangly and Guinness World Records-long, it makes one wonder, “How does he even wipe?” The character is best known in circles of international cult cinema […]
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Ricky
Allow me to explain: Single mom Katie (Alexandra Lamy) meets Paco (Sergi López, “Pan’s Labyrinth”) at the factory where they both work. They share a cigarette, then a bathroom stall and, thus, bodily fluids. From this one-break stand, Katie gets pregnant and, presumably because she and Paco work with chemicals, the resulting son, whom they […]
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The Squeeze
The other, a decade-earlier crime drama now available as a manufactured-on-demand DVD through Warner Archive, is perfectly surprising — in part because it features Stacy Keach donning a British accent and occasionally his birthday suit. Keach plays Jim Naboth, ex-Scotland Yard and current alcoholic. His first words in the movie? “Piss off!”That utterance sets the […]
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Dirty Mary Crazy Larry / Race with the Devil
Even the lowest of his low-budget vehicles bear far greater repeat value. Case in point — or two, to be exact: Shout! Factory’s double feature of “Dirty Mary Crazy Larry” and “Race with the Devil.” With regard to 1974’s “Dirty Mary Crazy Larry,” those title adjectives aren’t just there for rhyme; they have reason. Fonda […]
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Emergency!: The Final Rescues
Detailing the goings-on of Los Angeles County paramedics, firemen and medical practitioners, the Jack Webb-produced “Emergency!” lasted six long seasons on NBC. Its unofficial seventh comprises the contents of Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s double-disc “Emergency: The Final Rescues,” collecting all six of the 90-minute made-for-TV movies that aired between 1978 and 1979. These telefilms play […]