120 posts tagged with film.
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Movie: The Coffee Table
Jesús and Maria love each other, endlessly, magnificently, even though they sometimes just don't notice. But hey, now that their little lump of love is born, everything's going to work out. Sure, Maria still has a bit of a controlling streak in handling the household, calling all the shots when it comes to the color of their apartment walls, the name of the baby, the food they eat, the TV shows they watch, the thickness of the toilet paper and their holiday destination. Jesús, to prove to her and himself he ain't some spineless trilobite but that he has a will of his own, gets to pick the coffee table. A hard-won victory that he's cherishing by picking out the most aggressively ugly little thing imaginable, the furniture equivalent of Liberace getting lost in Ikea. An unbreakable wonder, says the salesman. Overpriced, says Maria. It will bring boundless happiness to their lives, says the salesman. Their worst nightmare, says us.... [more inside]
DOT’s Pre-Halloween Guide to Streaming 2024
A list of horror highlights by streaming service! Each of these services has too many to really cover in total, so I am highlighting just a few favorites for each, largely bypassing the better known stuff (though obviously fellow true believers may have seen most of these even so.) [more inside]
Movie: Spirit of Fear
2023 horror flick in which a man wakes up confused in an empty family home with one arm bloody, then finds post-it notes scattered around saying things like "Don't stay in here too long", "Don't go outside", "Run?" and "Fight?" while water runs down the walls, something claws at a shower curtain and he has vague memories of a woman and daughter somewhere. The tension, confusion and horror build. Debut from director Alex Davidson clocks in at a quick 75 minutes. On Tubi with no ads.
Movie: Take Aim at the Police Van
A prison truck is assaulted and the two convicts inside are murdered. The prison guard on duty gets suspended for negligence and takes it upon himself to track down the killers. [more inside]
Movie: A Thief in the Night
[TRAILER] Carefree young Patty finds that the Rapture spoken of in the Bible has come... and left her behind. This 1972 Evangelical Christian horror film was the first in a four film series. [more inside]
Movie: Candy Cane Lane
[TRAILER] Chris Carver (Eddie Murphy), determined to win the neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest, makes a pact with an elf (Jillian Bell) to help him win. However, the elf casts a spell bringing the twelve days of Christmas to life, bringing chaos to the small, unsuspecting town. [more inside]
Movie: Lynch/Oz
[TRAILER] Victor Fleming's film The Wizard of Oz (1939) is one of David Lynch's most enduring obsessions. This documentary goes over the rainbow to explore this Technicolor through-line in Lynch's work. [more inside]
Movie: Orson Welles: The One-Man Band
For all his brilliance, Orson Welles was consistently plagued by the inability to secure funding for his own projects, leading to decades' worth of films left unrealized or partially completed. Documentary filmmaker Vassili Silovic follows Croatian actress and screenwriter Oja Kodar, Welles' creative partner and lover during his later years, as she reconstructs Welles' notes and what little surviving footage remains from these abandoned projects from the 1960s to Welles' death in 1985. [more inside]
Book: Zeroville by Steve Erickson
On the same August day in 1969 that a crazed hippie ''family'' led by Charles Manson commits five savage murders in the canyons above Los Angeles, a young ex-communicated seminarian arrives with images of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift - ''the two most beautiful people in the history of the movies'' - tattooed on his head. [more inside]
National Museum of the American Indian Native Cinema showcase online
Streaming now through Friday, Nov. 24: The National Museum of the American Indian online Native Cinema Showcase. With eight days of online screenings, the program includes 35 films (six features, 29 shorts) representing 22 Native nations in six countries: U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Colombia. [more inside]
Movie: Viking
A sly, deadpan Canadian comedy about a team of non-astronauts sent into isolation in a desert on Earth because their personalities match the members of an actual ongoing Mars mission that's having interpersonal conflicts. The earthbound team is tasked with mirroring the real astronauts' behavior and coming up with solutions to the Martian team's psychological problems. 100% on RT with 9 reviews, free on Tubi and other options, mostly in French with English subtitles.
Movie: Dangerous Liaisons
Stephen Frears' 1988 adaptation of Laclos' 1782 French novel stars Glenn Close and John Malkovich as two awful aristocrats scheming to destroy morally upright Michelle Pfeiffer, with young innocents Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves as collateral damage. Nominated for Best Picture, it won 3 Oscars, including the costume and production design awards. 94/83 on RT. Includes rape and sexual manipulation. Also includes a Keanu/Malkovich swordfight. [more inside]
Movie: Adam
Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani's 2019 debut is a quiet, understated exploration of the evolving relationship between 2 women in a poor neighborhood in Casablanca: the unwed, pregnant Samia, who's looking for work and a place to stay, and Abla, a widowed baker with a young daughter. Beautifully and sensually filmed, with excellent performances, a sharp sense of place and a neat thread about baking running through. Trailer. 87% at Rotten Tomatoes. [more inside]
Movie: The Day After Trinity
This Oscar-nominated documentary interviews the men and women who were at Los Alamos during work on the first atomic bomb. Includes the secrecy, lab alcohol-fueled social scene ("their average age was 29"), footage of the bomb, the tense final preparations in a lightning storm, scientists talking about the pride, horror and/or regret they felt in both 1945 and 1981, and more. At Criterion Channel and free on YouTube. [more inside]
Movie: Freaks Out
[TRAILER] Four circus freaks with superpowers find themselves trapped in Nazi-occupied Rome after their owner and father figure goes missing in the aftermath of the 1943 surrender of Italy to the Allies. [more inside]
Movie: Victim
Basil Dearden's landmark 1961 noir about gay men in London victimized by a blackmail ring is credited with helping shift British attitudes about homosexuality. Closeted actor Dirk Bogarde plays the guilt-ridden lawyer who decides to fight back. Surprisingly thrilling, and sympathetic to a range of gay characters who are presented with minimal stereotyping (for the time). Banned from wide release in the US because Dearden refused to make concessions. 100/87 at Rotten Tomatoes, on HBO and the Criterion Channel. [more inside]
Lackadaisy Cats (Pilot)
This is a short film kickstarted from a webcomic about a gang of misfits running an undercover speakeasy in 1927 St. Louis sourcing more bootleg whisky. Their opposition is happy to stop them from doing so violently. Oh and they're all anthropomorphic cats. [more inside]
Movie: Taps
Lessons are learned when cadets at a military school stand up for their values and traditions. [more inside]
Movie: Proof (2005)
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, comes to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. [more inside]
Movie: School Ties
Lines are draw at a New England prep school when a new student's secret is revealed. [more inside]
Movie: Upstream
A down-and-out actor is coached by a fading star when he is offered a part in a play in London. One of dozens of director John Ford's silent films, this backstage comedy was thought lost until a complete copy turned up in New Zealand in 2009. Many of the plot elements are said to echo the real-life Barrymore acting dynasty. [more inside]
Movie: Haute tension (High Tension)
Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.
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Movie: Buffalo '66
After being released from prison, Billy (Vincent Gallo) is set to visit his parents with his wife, whom he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl (Christina Ricci) and forces her to act as his wife for the visit. [more inside]
Movie: The Found Footage Phenomenon
The Found Footage Phenomenon is an independent documentary charting the origins of the found footage sub-genre, tracking it through to the technique's current form, and asking what the future is. [more inside]
Movie: The Purple Rose of Cairo
Unhappily married Depression-era waitress Cecilia (Mia Farrow) earns the money while her inattentive husband, Monk (Danny Aiello), blows their meager income on getting drunk and gambling. To assuage her loneliness, Cecilia escapes to the picture show and becomes transfixed with the movie "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and especially with its lead character, archeologist Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels). When Tom literally steps off of the screen and into her life, both realities are thrown into chaos. [more inside]
Movie: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
In the Southwest during the Civil War, a mysterious stranger, Joe (Clint Eastwood), and a Mexican outlaw, Tuco (Eli Wallach), form an uneasy partnership -- Joe turns in the bandit for the reward money, then rescues him just as he is being hanged. When Joe's shot at the noose goes awry during one escapade, a furious Tuco tries to have him murdered. The men re-team abruptly, however, to beat out a sadistic criminal (Lee Van Cleef) and the Union army and find $20,000 that a soldier has buried in the desert. [more inside]
Movie: Saloum
Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal. The film is on Shudder, if that gives you any indication of how that goes. [more inside]
Movie: Do the Right Thing
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. [more inside]
Movie: The Decline of Western Civilization Part III
In this documentary, filmmaker Penelope Spheeris captures the life of Los Angeles "gutter punks": homeless teenagers who prefer anarchy and chaos to organized society. Many of the film's subjects come from abusive households and have developed alcohol and drug problems. While living on the streets, they must panhandle, squat in abandoned apartment buildings, and fight off skinheads to survive. The film also includes performances by several notable Los Angeles punk bands. [more inside]
Movie: Glengarry Glen Ross
When an office full of Chicago real estate salesmen is given the news that all but the top two will be fired at the end of the week, the atmosphere begins to heat up. Shelley Levene, who has a sick daughter, does everything in his power to get better leads from his boss, John Williamson, but to no avail. When his coworker Dave Moss comes up with a plan to steal the leads, things get complicated for the tough-talking salesmen. [more inside]
Movie: Timecrimes
in Nacho Vigalondo's time-travel thriller, a man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences. [more inside]
Movie: Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker
This psychological slasher and queer cult classic from 1982 tells the story of orphaned teen Billy (Jimmy McNichol) who becomes caught up in the twisted mind of his increasingly unhinged Aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell, really going for it). It's driven by a surprisingly upfront queer subplot involving a bigoted detective who suspects Billy is part of a gay love triangle that ended in murder, and features a positive portrayal of a gay high school basketball coach along with some campy, gorey thrills. (It also lingers an awful lot on Jimmy McNichol's topless chest and butt, and includes a young Bill Paxton as a homophobic teammate.) Available on Shudder. [more inside]
Movie: The First King
Romulus and Remus, two shepherds and loyal brothers, end up taking part to a journey that will lead one of them to be the founder of the greatest nation ever seen. However, the fate of the chosen one will pass from killing his own brother. [more inside]
Movie: The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
An exploration of the history of the Bee Gees, featuring revealing interviews with oldest brother Barry Gibb, and archival interviews with the late twin brothers Robin and Maurice. - IMDB. Trailer at HBO, YouTube, and Amazon. [more inside]
Mother Tongue Film Festival
There may or may not be enough interest to talk about the films, but I just wanted to alert people to the upcoming Mother Tongue Film Festival. It will be free online February 21 to May 31, 2021. The theme for the Festival this year is "The Healing Power of Storytelling”. Main website link. [more inside]
Book: "Shit, Actually" by Lindy West
I love making fun of movies. I love turning a piece of criticism into a piece of entertainment. I love pointing out a plot hole that makes a superfan write me an angry e-mail. I love turning my unsophistication into a tool. I love being hyperbolically, cathartically angry for no reason. I love being flippant and careless and earnest and meticulous all at once. Shit, Actually is inspired by a series of essays I started at Jezebel, in which I’d rewatch successful movies from the past to see how they hold up to our shifting modern sensibilities... What do we do now with beloved cultural works that don’t hold up?
Movie: Freaky
Slasher films get remixed when a notorious serial killer (Vince Vaughn) and an awkward 17-year-old girl (Kathryn Newton) switch bodies. A new horror-comedy from Blumhouse Pictures and writer-director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day). [more inside]
Movie: Vivarium
A young woman (Imogene Poots) and her fiancé (Jesse Eisenberg) are in search of the perfect starter home. After following a mysterious real estate agent to a new housing development, the couple finds themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child. [more inside]
Movie: Sorry We Missed You
Hoping that self-employment through the gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up UK delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of this modern-day form of labour exploitation. The newest film from Ken Loach. [more inside]
Movie: But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential inpatient conversion therapy camp to cure her lesbianism. There Megan soon comes to embrace her sexual orientation, despite the therapy, and falls in love. The supporting cast includes Melanie Lynskey, Dante Basco, Eddie Cibrian, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, Katrina Phillips, RuPaul, Richard Moll, Mink Stole, Kip Pardue, Michelle Williams, and Bud Cort.
Movie: Another Country
In Moscow in 1983, an American journalist interviews Guy Bennett, who recalls his last year at public school, fifty years before, and how it contributed to him becoming a spy. It explores his homosexuality and exposure to Marxism, while examining the hypocrisy and snobbery of the English public school system.
Movie: The Age of Innocence
“We live in an age of brutal manners, when people crudely say exactly what they mean, comedy is based on insult, tributes are roasts, and loud public obscenity passes without notice. Martin Scorsese's film "The Age of Innocence," which takes place in 1870, seems so alien it could be pure fantasy. [more inside]
Movie: A Man Called Ove
Ove, an ill-tempered, isolated retiree who spends his days enforcing block association rules and visiting his wife's grave, has finally given up on life just as an unlikely friendship develops with his boisterous new neighbors.
Movie: The Irishman
Martin Scorsese's 3.5-hour long gangster film, released on Netflix this week and in a small number of theaters across the USA earlier this month, uses digital "de-aging" to follow the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), who claimed on his deathbed to have been a mob hitman responsible for many murders, including that of labor boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). [more inside]
Movie: Life Is Beautiful
An Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life comes to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up, he goes to great lengths to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
Movie: Exam
The final candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a test so simple and confusing that tension begins to unravel.
Movie: The Art of Self-Defense
Casey is attacked at random on the street and enlists in a local dojo led by a charismatic and mysterious Sensei in an effort to learn how to defend himself. What he uncovers is a sinister world of fraternity, violence and hypermasculinity and a woman fighting for her place in it.
Movie: Yesterday
A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed.
Fosse/Verdon: All I Care About Is Love Season 1, Ep 6
As Bob edits "Lenny" and begins direction of "Chicago," the cost of his ongoing high-wire act becomes evident. While Bob deals with forced time to reflect, Gwen covers for Bob's absence and cleverly gets rid of a trying hospital roommate, while Ann looks after Bob in other ways. [more inside]
Fosse/Verdon: Where Am I Going Season 1, Ep 5
Bob appears to have bounced back from his recent psych hospitalization as he cozies up with new partner Ann Reinking, trades stories with Paddy Chayefsky and newly bereft Neil Simon, and welcomes Gwen and her new beau Ron for a very long weekend party on the Hamptons. Also, Nicole smokes her first cigarette. [more inside]