Author Archive: Mark R. Hasan

The End of a Great Run: Billy Wilder’s The Fortune Cookie

Review of The Fortune Cookie (1966), Billy Wilder’s last film of the 1960s, new on Blu via Twilight Time.

The Return of Moby Dick

Review of John Huston’s stirring adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1956), released on Blu by Twilight Time.

TJFF 2017: Rebekah Reiko & Yossi Fine’s Mandala Beats (2016)

Review of Mandala Beats (2016), Rebekah Reiko’s documentary on gifted Israeli bassist Yossi Fine, and his trip to the Rajasthan International Folk Festival in India. The short documentary had its World Premiere this past weekend at TJFF 2017.

TJFF: Edith Jorisch’s The Heir / L’heritier (2017)

Review of The Heir / L’heritier (2017), Edith Jorisch’s chronicle of her grandfather’s efforts to reclaim 3 paintings stolen by the Nazis in 1939. The short documentary screens May 11 at TJFF 2017. Also happening tonight: rare 35mm screenings of Joshua Then and Now (TJFF) + Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (The Royal).

TJFF 2017: The Return of Adam Bomb and The Garbage Pail Kids

Review of Jeff Zapata and Joe Simko’s affectionate documentary 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story (2016), which recently screened at TJFF 2017, and features a wealth of interviews, including artists Art Spielgelman, John Pound, Tom Bunk, and James Warhola.

Podcast with Maurizio Guarini on scoring Dante’s Inferno / L’Inferno (1911)

Review of Italy’s first feature film, the surreal silent classic Dante’s Inferno / L’Inferno (1911) + a podcast interview with the film’s composer, Goblin’s Maurizio Guarini, plus related podcast links.

Podcast Interview with Do Not Resist Director Craig Atkinson

Review of the unsettling doc Do Not Resist + Podcast Interview with Director Craig Atkinson on the militarization of local U.S. police forces.

Podcast Interview with Age of Consequences Director Jared Scott

Review of the provocative climate change doc The Age of Consequences + Podcast Interview with Director Jared Scott.

Podcast on BSV 1172’s World Premiere + Tom Roston & Norman Wilner at Bay Street Video, Pt.1

New podcast featuring thoughts on the World Premiere at SDUFF of my experimental doc BSV 1172 + Part One of a conversation with I Lost It at the Video Store author Tom Roston & NOW magazine’s Norman Wilner, who discussed video store culture in-store at Bay Street Video back in May.

An Interview with Director and Editor Victor Kanefsky

Podcast interview director and veteran editor Victor Kanesfky on the art of editing, spanning Art Bastard (2016), his recent documentary on artist Robert Cenedella, and editing the classic indie horror Ganja & Hess (1976) + graffiti doc Style Wars (1983).

BR: Fortune Cookie, The (1966)

The hook in The Fortune Cookie is simple and sweet: after getting smacked and back-flipped while covering a football game, CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) wakes up in a hospital to find brother-in-law / personal injury lawyer Willie Gingrich (Walter Matthau) has already set in motion a perfect plan to sue…

BR: Moby Dick (1956)

Reportedly shot in 1954 and released two years later after a tumultuous production history, John Huston’s film of Herman Melville’s classic 1851 novel may have been poo-pooed by critics, with great disapproval levied on Gregory Peck, but time has been very kind to the film…

Film: Mandala Beats (2016)

Montreal-based photographer Rebekah Reiko makes her directorial debut with this brisk 44 min. documentary on Israel’s Yossi Fine, branded by some as ‘the Jimi Hendrix of the bass guitar.’ Half Lithuanian and Caribbean, Fine soon discovered Indian roots on his mother’s side…

Film: Heir, The / L’heritier (2017)

Edith Jorisch’s hour-long documentary draws from her family’s very personal story of her late grandfather’s quest to seek out three paintings he recalls from his childhood home in Austria, last seen in 1939 before the family’s children were sent to Belgium the day before the Nazis drove tanks into the country…

Film: 30 Years of Garbage – The Garbage Pail Kids Story (2016)

Yes, they made a movie about the trading card stickers phenom which challenged the cutesy Cabbage Patch Kids dolls with images of snotty, explosive, fairly grotesque kids who on occasional might main themselves with a dopey smile…

LP: John and Mary (1969)

Written during his busiest period (1968-1970), Quincy Jones’ score for John and Mary was quite sparse, leaving obligatory space for the film’s myriad dialogue exchanges and source music, but the score is memorable for being atypical of the material Jones was writing at the time: action comedies (The Italian Job, The Hell with Heroes), comedies (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,Cactus Flower), and the funky style of They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!

CD: Runaway Train (1985)

For some soundtrack fans, it was a bit of surprise to learn the composer of pioneering synth scores had begun his career with large orchestral scores for John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982)…

LP: Bourne Identity, The (2002)

The first film in the enduring franchise gave John Powell the perfect opportunity to write what remains both his definitive action sound, and the definitive action score of that decade, blending large orchestral sounds with layers upon layers of electronics…

CD: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

In a radical move for director Tim Burton, the score for his latest film was written by the collaborative team of Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson, both skilled in composing, orchestrating, and arranging for a diversity of projects…

MP3: 1979 Revolution – Black Friday (2016)

No stranger to scoring video games, Nima Fakhrara’s music is as unusual as the interactive game’s design in which players can take several differing paths as they’re immersed in the world of the 1979 Islamic Revolution with turned Iran into a theocracy…