The Fate of the Furious and Studio-Crafted Special Features
Review of Fate of the Furious (2017), the latest entry in Universal’s bullet-proof franchise + thoughts on a very dumb trend in Special Features.
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DVD: Learning Tree, The (1969)
After progressing from fashion photographer for Vogue to Life photo journalist, Gordon Parks made the natural leap to novelist, penning The Learning Tree in 1964, which eventually caught the attention of Warner Bros., and in 1969 Parks became the first African-American to direct for a major studio…
Film: Slums – Cities of Tomorrow / Bidonville: architecture de la ville future (2014)
Although its title suggests a cinematic document of human misery seething in the poorest, filthiest, most overcrowded tracts of human civilization, Canadian director Jean-Nicolas Orhon attempts to clarify the very definition of slums, and using interwoven interviews with Robert Neuwirth and Jeremy Seabrook…
Soundtrack Reviews
Newly uploaded soundtrack reviews of Alexandre Desplat’s Monuments Men (Sony Classical), Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Prisoners (WaterTower Music), and David Arnold + Michael Price’s Sherlock: Season 3 (Silva Screen).
jOBS (2013) + Welcome to Macintosh (2008)
Reviews of the 2013 Steve Jobs biopic jOBS (Universal) + Robert Baca and Josh Rizzo’s Welcome to Macintosh (Baca Productions), plus links to a pair of new shorts at Big Head Amusements.
Camera Test #102: GBC-CTC-5X + Flesh Tones
Since the basic details of the GBC CTC-5X video camera are covered in Camera Test #102, I’ll keep things a bit more brisk that in the prior Camera Test blog. If the facts start reading a wee bit dry, just skip down to the end where the YouTube + Vimeo links are located. Now then. From what I’ve managed to find in print and picture online, GBC was a U.S. company specializing in industrial-level video cameras during the late sixties […]
Mark Cousins’ A Story of Children and Film
Review of Mark Cousins’ latest filmic essay, The Story of Children and Film, currently screening at The Bloor Cinema.
A Video Nasty: House on Straw Hill (1976), plus some Elio Petri & Joseph Losey
Lengthy review of a vintage Video Nasty, House on Straw Hill / aka Exposé (1976) from Severin on Blu-ray, plus a related review of Elio Petri’s amazing psychological thriller A Quiet Place in the Country / Un tranquillo posto di campagna (1968), and from the KQEK.com archives, Joseph Losey’s Eva / aka Eve (1962) from KINO.
Video Tales I: Rewind This, Firing Up the Betamax, and The Magic Beta Case
The Editor’s Blog goes in-depth with much personal blather about Josh Johnson’s new documentary on VHS collecting, Rewind This! (MPI). In addition to a review of the doc, there’s a review Charlie Sheen’s No Man’s Land as watched on Betamax, a short-short film on “The Magic Beta Case,” and a review of David Gregory’s great doc on Britain’s Video Nasty era – Ban the Sadist Videos! (Severin Films).
News + Soundtrack Reviews
Some site update news & info on upcoming film reviews (plus a short-short video), and soundtrack reviews of Lior Ron’s Pablo (Light Drop Music), and Murray Gold’s Doctor Who Series 7 and the double-billed The Snowmen + The Doctor, the Widow, and the Snowmen (Silva Screen).
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