The Mayhem in Tsui Hark’s ‘Once Upon a Time in China’ Films Echoed Hong Kong Citizens’ Fears
Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China films resonated strongly with Hong Kong citizens worried about the imminent handover of the country to mainland China.
Michael Barrett
The 10 Best Classic Films on Blu-ray in 2021
If you really want to understand today’s culture, it pays to watch old restored films such as these in our 10 Best Classic Films on Blu-ray in 2021.
Alfred Hitchcock Plays with Trains in ‘Number Seventeen’
Alfred Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen isn’t a great film but a good one that reminds us of what a casually obsessive craftsman he was.
One More Sad Song: Milos Forman’s Critique of America ‘Ragtime’ at 40
Milos Forman’s Ragtime reflects his jaundiced outsider’s perspective on America’s lures and traps and his mistrust of authority and structure.
’40s-Era Horror-Noir ‘Among the Living’ Ain’t Whistling Dixie
We never know everything that goes on that night in horror-noir ‘Among the Living’. This film is no affirmative vision of a small town in the American South.
When a Body Meets a Body: Frankenstein’s Daughter Acts Out Her 1950s Issues
Frankenstein’s daughter, in modern parlance, is some kind of proto-“trans” creation of a woman’s mind within a patched-together male body. This is heady stuff.
Like Peas in a Sci-Fi Pod: The 1978 Remake of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’
Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake of sci-fi pod people film Invasion of the Body Snatchers achieves a level of unease above and beyond the novel and the 1956 film.
Rod Serling Undermines the American Dream with the Stories in ‘Night Gallery’
Existential fear about post-war American masculinity is dragged into disturbing light in Rod Serling’s dark tales of the American Dream, Night Gallery.
Two 1950s Argentine Noirs Raise Goose Bumps and Fevered Style
Film noirs ‘The Beast Must Die’ and ‘The Bitter Stems’ exemplify why forgotten films must be restored and rediscoveries trumpeted to the amazement of new generations.
The Sexual Politics in Sexy Rudolph Valentino’s Silent Film, ‘The Sheik’
Eyebrows tilting and nostrils flaring and emanating pheromones of intoxicating effluvia, Foreigners like Valentino’s Sheik had un-American sex all over Hollywood.
Quick and Dirty Tales of Murder and Journalism in Hollywood
Flicker Alley’s set of Hollywood B-films from 1934 provide sociological snapshots of the limits of respectable cinema.