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Steven Boone writes: " Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987) and Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession (1981; frustratingly unavailable on DVD) are two sides of the same cursed coin, producing in the viewer an identical effect—sheer giddiness at their audacious, divinely, demonically, deliriously inventive visual play. Each flick is a series of riffs on the notion of possession—Raimi's aimed at the grindhouses, Zulawski's at European arthouses. But both films are so dizzyingly choreographed that keen viewers will recognize them as two of the 1980s' most sublime horror classics." Timed with the release of Raimi's fun new horror flick, Drag Me to Hell, Boone looks back at what, er, possessed these two filmmakers back then. Read more >> |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Revolutionary Road, Stomp! Shout!... and more.
- What We're Watching: Nenette + Boni, Crips & Bloods, Realm of Senses.
- Explore: Spring Breakdown interview; Bruce McDonald podcast.
- Contest: Away We Go.
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Adapted from the landmark novel by Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road is Sam Mendes' incisive portrait of a 1950s American marriage seen through the eyes of Frank and April Wheeler ( Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet). "This film is so good it is devastating," wrote Roger Ebert. " As gripping and relevant now as it ever was. Or ever will be," adds Kenneth Turan in the LA Times. Some feel that Winslet was better here than in her Oscar-winning turn in The Reader. David Edelstein, for one: "There isn't a banal moment in Winslet's performance--not a gesture, not a word." |
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Writer-director Jay Wade Edwards, a producer-editor on the Adult Swim cartoons Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies, "has lovingly crafted Stomp! Shout! Scream! to be both a parody of and loving homage to the beach party and monster movies of the 1960s without ever winking at the audience," wrote Jon Condit. The Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov felt it a "does it better than American International Pictures ever did, with canny nods along the way to Them, Jaws, The Horror of Party Beach, and Roger Corman's own B-movie update Humanoids From the Deep. " |
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The former skateboarder and director of the intriguing Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001), Stacy Peralta, returns with Crips and Bloods: Made in America, a surprisingly powerful, moving new documentary. Like Roger Corman spending time with the Hell's Angels in the 1960s, Peralta has descended into the most dangerous neighborhoods of Los Angeles to interview various gang members. Though most outsiders have a tendency to believe that these gangsters are responsible for their own dark fates, Peralta outlines a history of black America over the past century, pinpointing just how certain simple agendas trapped them in certain neighborhoods and began breeding anger, hatred and violence... read review >> |
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On the surface of it, Senses seems a perfect failure as a pornographic film -- and it is about as pornographic as any mainstream porno in terms of what is shown (it is still censored in Japan). But Nagisa Oshima has other things in mind, although I suspect that viewers unfamiliar with Oshima's work will be hard pressed to say exactly what those things might be. As I mentioned in my review of Empire of the Senses, Oshima is a filmmaker who considers sexual transgression to be political transgression... read review >> |
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The Office's John Krasinski and Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolph star as Burt and Verona in the funny and heartfelt Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. It opens in theaters June 5th (limited). And away we go, GreenCine and Focus Features are teaming up for a new contest where you can win a bagful of Away We Go goodies. Five (5) Winners will receive the official movie soundtrack, plus an Away We Go T-shirt and postcard! For more details and to enter the contest, go here >>
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