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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

The story of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Sep 21, 2014 - 8 comments

The Spirit Of 99! 1999 was a supernaturally good year for movie releases and now the majority of them are easily available on streaming apps and sundry. Why not watch two smaller 1999 movies a week and see what, if any The Spirit Of 99 was? Suggestions to follow- [more inside]
posted by The Whelk on Sep 15, 2014 - 66 comments

Cult Film Club: Recruited by an intelligence agency, outstanding martial arts student Bruce Lee participates in a brutal karate tournament hosted by the evil Han. Along with champions Roper and Williams, he uncovers Han's white slavery and drug trafficking ring located on a secret island fortress. In the exciting climax, hundreds of freed prisoners fight in an epic battle with Lee and Han locked in a deadly duel. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Sep 15, 2014 - 16 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

A composer moves into a huge Victorian mansion after the death of his wife and daughter, only to find that he's not quite alone. [more inside]
posted by Joakim Ziegler on Sep 3, 2014 - 11 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

This week's pick is what I think is one of the best horror movies ever, "The Changeling". [more inside]
posted by Joakim Ziegler on Aug 29, 2014 - 7 comments

Cult film of the week: Comic actor Ben Stiller co-wrote, directed, and stars in this spoof of the fashion industry that began as a short skit for the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards. Stiller is Derek Zoolander, an intellectually challenged but bone structure-blessed male model who's despondent after being eclipsed in popularity by an equally vacuous rival, Hansel (Owen Wilson). Upon his reluctant retirement, Derek is invited to a day spa by previously standoffish fashion designer Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell), where the befuddled model is brainwashed by the mysterious Katinka (Milla Jovovich) into assassinating the prime minister of Malaysia. In addition to Stiller's real-life wife Christine Taylor, Zoolander co-stars his father Jerry Stiller, along with Jon Voight, David Duchovny, Andy Dick, and Fabio. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Aug 25, 2014 - 19 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

We moved some things around to add in the Crossover category, with the first selection One Hour Photo honoring the recently-passed Robin Williams. Not only do we need to put the rotation back on track, but we also need to come up with a plan for the extra picks for October. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 17, 2014 - 6 comments

Ángela, a film student researching for her thesis paper on violence in cinema, stumbles upon a snuff film featuring the murder of a former student at the university. Enlisting the help of classmate and violent-movie buff Chema, Angela begins an investigation into the crime that leads them to several suspects. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 13, 2014 - 12 comments

We've already agreed in principle on adding a "Crossover" category to the rotation for Horror Club, a category that would include scary science fiction, thrillers, etc. Since there wasn't much steam building for any particular film for the scheduled "retro" pick for week 10, and since the world just lost Robin Williams, I'm going to invoke my benevolent dictator powers. Week 10 will now be the debut for "Crossover" as a rotation slot, and the first pick will be Mark Romanek's film One Hour Photo. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 11, 2014 - 6 comments

This week's pick is a non-English rotation selection. The feature length debut of director Alejandro Amenábar (who later made The Others), this 1996 low budget Spanish film is available free on Hulu, with ads. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 8, 2014 - 22 comments

In David Lynch's "dream of dark and troubling things," Henry is left alone in his apartment to care for his deformed baby and has a series of strange encounters with the beautiful girl across the hall and the woman living in his radiator. [more inside]
posted by maxsparber on Aug 4, 2014 - 20 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

This week's pic is Don Coscarelli's (Phantasm, Bubba Ho-Tep) adaptation of David Wong's loony serialized novel, John Dies at the End. This goofy, mind-bending horror comedy combines slacker comedy, Lovecraftian horror, and freshman dorm philosophy weirdness. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jul 24, 2014 - 59 comments

1958, B&W, Horror, Sci-Fi. A thick fog engulfs the side of a mountain, containing big puffy eyes with tentacles that control people's minds. The first cable episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 features many of the elements that would make the show a success: lots of jokes, whimsical performances, and a movie bad enough to peel paint. But as with most of the first season, it's really not the guys at their best. For devoted fans only. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on May 14, 2014 - 29 comments