FanFare

Waking up from a car accident, a young woman finds herself in the basement of a man who says he's saved her life from a chemical attack that has left the outside uninhabitable.
posted by maxsparber on Mar 13, 2016 - 37 comments

Cult film club: Edward Woodward stars as Sergeant Howie, a naive young police officer sent to Summerisle, a secluded island off the coast of Scotland, to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Rowan. When he arrives there, he finds a very tight-knit community that is mistrustful and hostile to outsiders. Soon, Howie begins to realize that the town might be a strange pagan cult, one given to unbridled sexuality and possible human sacrifice. Seeking an audience with the oddly civilized Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), Howie hopes to get to the bottom of the mystery, but instead he finds something more shocking than he could have ever imagined. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Oct 13, 2014 - 10 comments

The best film ever made, followed the following week by the remake of The Wicker Man, starring Nicolas Cage, which somehow manages to be terrible and wonderful at the same time. See you Monday. Summerisle, Summerisle, Summerisle, Summerisle.
posted by maxsparber on Oct 9, 2014 - 4 comments

Cult Film Club: Streetwise charmer and cardshark Eddy (Nick Moran) walks into the biggest card game of his life carrying a stake backed by the life-savings of his three best mates, Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Statham) and Soap (Dexter Fletcher). Eddy is the sharpest player on the circuit but the game is a set-up, and Eddy leaves owing the underworld boss "Hatchet" Harry (P.H. Moriarty) half a million. Harry gives Eddy a week to come up with the money before he starts taking fingers as collateral. (Continued) [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Oct 6, 2014 - 10 comments

Cult film club: "I like that. Turn it up!" Performance is the Altamont of '60s cinema; psychedelic and hallucinatory, decadent and depraved, polymorphous-perverse. And you can dance to it! Melding the sex, drugs, and rock & roll ethos of swinging '60s London with the gangster film, Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell's genre-bending cult classic is so mind blowing that star James Fox did not act in a film again for nearly a decade. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Sep 29, 2014 - 0 comments

Cult film club: The thrill of the hunt. It's the ultimate drug, and the more intense the rush, the higher the price. International superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme teams up with world-famous action director John Woo for this electrifying thriller that WGN Radio hails as "Easily one of the year's best films!" Van Damme is the target of an evil mercenary (Lance Henriksen) who recruits homeless combat veterans for the "amusement" of his clients - bored tycoons who will pay a half a million dollars to stalk and kill the most challenging prey of them all: Man. Laced with dark humor and slam-packed with electrifying action Hard Target is a must see for action fans. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Sep 23, 2014 - 5 comments

Cult Film Club: Step back into the psychedelic ’60s in this sexy, hilarious parody of Valley Of The Dolls, co-written by Roger Ebert. When three fun-loving bombshells with a rock band head for Hollywood to make it big, they find themselves at a hedonistic love-in thrown by an eccentric music promoter. Soon, it seems, superstardom is within reach. That is, if their newfound distractions don’t get in the way! [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Sep 8, 2014 - 3 comments

Cult Film Club: Lured by their dreams of fame and fortune, three ambitious young women enter the world of show business and discover how easy it is to sink into a celebrity nightmare of ego, alcohol and 'pills' - the beloved "dolls." A prim New Englander (Barbara Parkins) unexpectedly skyrockets from her job as secretary in a talent agency to a glamorous TV model. A determined singer (Patty Duke) finds that Hollywood success can also spell self-destruction. And a beautiful sex symbol (Sharon Tate) is torn between the money commands and the shame of feeling exploited. Based on Jacqueline Susann's phenomenal best-seller about the underside of Hollywood, this fascinating melodrama was once seen as a shocking behind-the-scenes look at how show business creates instant stars, destroys romances and changes personalities forever. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Sep 1, 2014 - 5 comments

Cult Film Club film of the week: Pink Flamingos is a 1972 American transgressive black comedy exploitation film written, produced, scored, shot, edited, and directed by John Waters. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy due to the wide range of perverse acts performed in explicit detail. It has since become one of the most notorious films ever made and made an underground star of the flamboyant drag queen actor Divine. The film co-stars David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Cookie Mueller, and Edith Massey.
posted by maxsparber on Aug 18, 2014 - 6 comments

Eraserhead, David Lynch's early midnight hit. I will post this on Monday, lively discussion sure to follow.
posted by maxsparber on Aug 1, 2014 - 4 comments

Patrick Swayze stars in this sexy thriller from the producer of Die Hard and the Matrix. Co-starring Ben Gazzara (The Thomas Crown Affair), Kelly Lynch (Charlie's Angels) and Sam Elliott (We Were Soldiers), Road House delivers no-holds-barred action that pushes the envelope for high-octane thrills! Swayze is Dalton, a legendary bouncer who comes to Jasper, Missouri, for a special purpose: to restore order at the notorious Double Deuce Bar. In one spectacular fight after another, Dalton rids the bar of thugs and henchmen. But when he runs afoul of a ruthless crime boss (Gazzara) who controls the town, the stage is set for a blistering showdown that'll leave only one man standing! [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Jul 28, 2014 - 19 comments

A battle of gigantic proportions is looming in the neon underground of New York City. The armies of the night number 100,000; they outnumber the police 5 to 1; and tonight they're after the Warriors—a street gang blamed unfairly for a rival gang leader's death. This contemporary action-adventure story takes place at night, underground, in the sub-culture of gang warfare that rages from Coney Island to Manhattan to the Bronx. Members of the Warriors fight for their lives, seek to survive in the urban jungle and learn the meaning of loyalty. This intense and stylized film is a dazzling achievement for cinematographer Andrew Laszlo. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Jul 21, 2014 - 27 comments