Good Thing Melvin Van Peebles Ignored All That Dumb-Ass Safe Advice
Melvin Van Peebles’ life and art are about breaking the rules, ignoring society’s “wise” advice, and following your heart.
Film Feature
Deadpan Masterpiece ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’ Keeps Cruising at 50
Two-Lane Blacktop roars with the hopes of an era when gearheads, hucksters, and hippies believed that time on the road would solve all their problems.
‘This Is Francis X. Bushman’ Revives the Dapper Silent Film Star
Silent film star Francis X. Bushman of ‘Ben Hur’ fame overcomes the posthumous oblivion that claims most of the stars who built early cinema.
The Return of George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’ Provokes Sympathy for the Nearly Dead
George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park (1973), showing at Salem Horror Fest, terrifies with what the future brings to all who dare to live.
When Golden Age TV Films Screamed About Gender Roles
In these three restored Gothic films from Kino Lorber, gender roles and their social undertones feed into the template of paranoid thrillers.
Classism Rolls Through Classic Film ‘A Place in the Sun’ Like a Noirish Fog
A lyrical ode to Hollywood beauties Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, the An American Tragedy-inspired A Place in the Sun casts a long noirish shadow.
When You’re Strange: 5 Gen X Films That Shaped My Goth Goth Heart
Gen X kids of single working moms like me had to figure a lot of things out themselves. These five films helped make sense of the world – outside and inside.
Fantasia 2021: Ruth Platt on Directing Horror Film ‘Martyrs Lane’ Without Fear
Director Ruth Platt talks with PopMatters about women filmmakers using the system while subverting it to empower their voice.
Director Filip Jan Rymsza on the Descent into Madness in Thriller ‘Mosquito State’
Filip Jan Rymsza’s thriller Mosquito State amps up hyper-reality in a cautionary tale of what the 24-hour news cycle is doing to our brains.
Venice 2021: ‘Spencer’ Is a Majestic Arthouse Farce that Keeps Its Distance
Kristen Stewart embodies the distraught Lady Diana in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, an audacious chamber piece that fetishizes the woman it seeks to liberate.
Venice 2021: Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Stirs up the Grit
Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ (Venice International Film Festival 2021) looks the part and will not disappoint fans, but it groans under the weight of its world-building.