1968, Los Angeles. It’s a time and place that was recently brought back to life in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It was also the year the French filmmaking couple Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy both shot films in Los Angeles. Demy’s Model Shop has been cited as inspiration for Tarantino’s film. But it in a way, I find Varda’s Lions Love to be the more interesting look at the city in this crucial year. Certainly, as a counter-culture counterpoint to Tarantino’s film, it offers a lot to consider. I wrote about it over at Aquarium Drunkard.
Read MoreJust in time for the holidays, a brilliant 30-year-old home movie that proves there is no minimum age requirement to producing feats of cinematic wonderment. Head over to Aquarium Drunkard and have a look at my love letter to the post-apocalyptic mini epic that is 1989’s Doctor Death.
Read MoreI put down some words and thoughts on Roland Klick’s DEADLOCK for Aquarium Drunkard’s Videodrome feature.
Read MoreAn article on Alex Cox’s STRAIGHT TO HELL, written for Aquarium Drunkard’s Videodrome column.
Read MoreA piece on 1994’s HALF-COCKED for Aquarium Drunkard’s Videodrome column.
Read MoreFinal day of the online press screenings includes a mesmerizing Vietnamese fever dream, a dreary Swiss drama, and a lovingly melancholic animated short. Plus, some final thoughts on this First Round of 2021’s two part Berlinale Film Festival.
Read MoreIn this installment, we look at the final Competition movies available. This includes the moving documentary MR BACHMANN AND HIS CLASS, the genre-defying Netflix doc A COP MOVIE, and a seven-minute movie that packs quite a punch: YOUR STREET.
Read MoreIt’s a trifecta today: a brilliant three-chapter Japanese film WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, the impressive Iranian tragedy BALLAD OF A WHITE COW, and the psychedelic mind-bending document of Hawaii that is Fern Silva’s ROCK BOTTOM RISER.
Read MoreDay Three of the Berlinale Industry Event online screenings includes a look at Céline Sciamma’s PETITE MAMAN, Alexandre Koberidze’s WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY?, Soi Cheang’s cops vs serial killer movie LIMBO, and another trip to Hungary in Benedek Fliegauf’s FOREST - I SEE YOU EVERYWHERE.
Read MoreThe 2021 Berlinale Industry Event diary continues. This time, we go down the rabbit hole with THE SCARY OF SIXTY-FIRST, get gobsmacked by BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONEY PORN, visit the darkness and NATURAL LIGHT of Hungary in WWII, dodge our responsibilities in the Canadian countryside in SOCIAL HYGIENE, and wrap up a long day with a dire ALBATROS.
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