After a lengthy absence from feature films, writer / director Darrell Wasyk (H, Mustard Bath) returns with The Girl in the White Coat, his liberal adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Overcoat,” starring Pascale Montpetit, which begins its engagement at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Friday. Uploaded is both a film review, and an interview with Wasyk, who also discusses his breakthrough film H, and its planned DVD release. Yes, really!
Slight editorial blather to set up the first set of reviews focusing on the films of Frank Sinatra, crooner, and pretty good actor who eventually settled into a familiar groove and sometimes got lazy in the execution of a film or two. From Olive Films on Blu-ray comes the Rod Serling-scripted heist thriller Assault on a Queen, and the film version of Neil Simon’s first play, Come Blow Your Horn; and from Twilight Time we have Pal Joey, with pal Frankie sandwiched between palsies Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. No spicy hot sauce required at all!
Sites are back online, and so is a quartet of reviews for recent genre entries, starting with a virus thriller: Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion (Warner Home Video); a zombie film: Brothers Howard and Jon Ford’s The Dead (Anchor Bay); a retro slasher: Alex Pucci and Draven Gonzalez’ Frat House Massacre (Synapse Films); and a J-horror: Yôichi Nishiyama’s Gurozuka (Synapse Films).
Tally of current & ongoing series & festivals, plus some handy-dandy links for those who missed the screening of Carl Michael von Hausswold and Thomas Nordanstad’s short film Hashima, Japan 2002, about the abandoned isle & mining mini-town that’s been decaying under the raw elements for the past 30 years. Also of note: link to Rue Morgue’s interview with Mark Miller, who championed the restoration of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed.
Review of Gerald Peary’s 2009 documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009), which screened this past Sunday March 25th at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema. Also included: bonus audio clips from Peary’s pre-screening intro + post-screening audience Q&A (in lo-fi mono!)
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