MMM is a screwball comedy reformulated into a pitch black misadventure where dangerous entanglements recur with greater intensity, and the nonsense begins when against Larry’s wishes Carol agrees to accept an invitation of coffee & cake by senior neighbours Paul and Lillian House…
Alice is clearer example of Woody Allen revisiting his familiar template of an unhappily married woman going through a series of personal adventures before she decides it’s time to change her life and begin a second and more enlightened phase that may not even require a husband or boyfriend…
The joy (and perils) of infidelity are centre-frame in Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) + Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives (1992), on Blu via Twilight Time.
Woody Allen’s last film starring Mia Farrow is one of his best and darkest comedies, hyper-fixating on the (largely) negative effects of infidelity – the film earned Oscar nominations for writing and supporting actress (Judy Davis) – but its most powerful moments…
Reviews of two Woody Allen satirical classics – Bananas (1971) + Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) – on Blu via Twilight Time.
Woody Allen’s reteaming with Take the Money and Run (1969) co-writer Mickey Rose struck pure gold in this poke at contemporary politics in which a moron becomes the leader of a South American country after it undergoes a Cuba-like revolution…
One of the toughest challenges for any film built around a series of thematically connected sketches is consistency of quality, and offering enough variation so that no segment is redundant nor feels disconnected from the original concept. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex…
Reviews of Woody Allen’s formal feature directorial debut Take the Money and Run (1969) from KL Studio Classics, the short mockumentary Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971), and the underrated drama September (1987) from Twilight Time.
Running a compact 25 mins. Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story is a satire of the Nixon Administration, which was past the halfway point of its first term mandate when the short was scheduled for airing in February of 1972, but as the lore surrounding this ‘lost’ film goes…
Released the same year as Radio Days, Woody Allen’s September retains the cast members Mia Farrow and Dianne Wiest, but the tone harkens back to the auteur’s Interiors (1978), a more dour and overwrought attempt at Serious Drama…
Jean Peters at Fox: Anne of the Indies (1951) + A Man Called Peter (1955)
Reviews of Jean Peters’ mid-career actioner ANNE OF THE INDIES (1951) and feature film swan song A MAN CALLED PETER (1955) on Twilight Time Blu + some Editorial Blather.
Dante Tomaselli’s Out-of-Body Experience
Interview with filmmaker, composer, and sound artist Dante Tomaselli regarding his new CD, OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE (2019).
Agusti Villaronga’s Moon Child: a Mystical Thriller for Adults
Review of Agusti Villaronga’s mystical thriller MOON CHILD / EL NINO DE LA LUNA (1989), on Blu via Cult Epics.
That Stock Company Guy, Dick Miller
Review of Elijah Drenner’s giddy doc THAT GUY DICK MILLER (2014) from Indiecan.
Impeccable Ensembles: Beat the Devil (1953) + Between the Lines (1977)
Impeccable ensemble casts are the main draw in John Huston’s BEAT THE DEVIL (1953) + Joan Micklin Silver’s BETWEEN THE LINES (1977).
Dante Tomaselli’s Out-of-Body Experience (2019)
Admirers of Dante Tomaselli’s prior sonic explorations will be quite surprised at the shift the director of Torture Chamber (2013) and Desecration (1999) took with his latest album, titled Out-of-Body Experience, released July 4th, 2019 via TuneCore…
ArtScopeTO 09: Interview with Photographer Pengkuei Ben Huang
ArtScopeTO Podcast interview with photographer Pengkuei Ben Huang, whose series SOLEMN PINES FADING THINGS is running at Toronto’s Urban Gallery as part of the 2019 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival.
Podcast interview with LES MISERABLES’ John Murphy
Podcast interview with composer John Murphy and his recently-scored BBC mini-series LES MISERABLES (2018).
Although she’d made her film debut opposite Tyrone Power in the big budget historical adventure-drama Captain from Castile (1947), Fox put starlet Jean Peters through the familiar career-building programme …
BR: Man Called Peter, A (1955)
While the film’s titular subject of former U.S. Senate chaplain Peter Marshall was (and may remain) the film’s main draw, the production is also known among classic film fans Foxologists as Jean Peters’ final film…
BR: Moon Child / El niño de la luna (1989)
After making his feature film debut with the striking and deeply unsettling drama In a Glass Cage (1986), Spanish auteur Agusti Villaronga’s next project was something more dreamy and less controversial (to a point)…
DVD: That Guy Dick Miller (2014)
There have been documentaries on the faces and voices of character actors we’ve seen but can never place, but Dick Miller is a different animal – a hugely prolific character actor and emeritus magnus of…
One of the oddest films ever made, Beat the Devil is many things: a dry comedy, a slick celluloid pastry with a hollow centre, a cheat, and an interminably dull production which…
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!
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…
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