DAY 6: VINEGAR SYNDROME SUNDAY
HORROR: BLUE VENGEANCE (1989)
A New York City cop/action movie with horror elements. The plot made this an instant purchase. An escaped prison inmate with paranoid visions and obsessions with a heavy metal band, tracks down the members of said band one by one.
B/B+
ACTION: RAW FORCE (1982)
Can a movie have too much? I kept thinking this to myself while the movie unleased gratuitous nudity, terrorists hijaking a cruise ship, and samurai zombies. It kept one upping itself. Normally this is a good thing. It's what you want in exploitation. It just didn't click with me as well as it did in other movies.
B
EROTICA: THE TELEPHONE BOOK (1971)
Where the hell did this come from?
On the level of Putney Swope but even more formally inventive. The writer and director went on to write for Saturday Night Live. That should give you the type of freewheeling comedy you get here. Punched up with loads of sexploitation. There is a bit here with a coin machine that ranks up there with the best comedy from the decade.
Films like these are why I love Vinegar Syndrome.
A-
DAY 7
KNIFE + HEART
Gay porn. Giallo influences. De Palma influences. A dildo knife. It's got a lot going for it.
B+/B
I MARRIED A WITCH
The best of the 40s comedies were largely dominated by Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch. Rene Clair managed to churn this one out with the lovely Veronica Lake.
B+
DAY 8
KILLER CROCODILE (1989)
A Jaws rip off thru and thru. There's a period in the late 80's and early 90's where Italian genre filmmakers would nototiously take a popular property and exploit the hell out of it. Bruno Mattei did it with Shocking Dark (his riff on Aliens and Terminator 2). Claudio Fragasso did it with Night Killer (aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3). Fabrizio De Angelis gives us his Jaws rip off with Killer Crocodile. The clincher is a Riz Ortolani score that blatantly rips John Williams' score.
B-
THE DEVIL'S HONEY (1986)
"Saxo-mophone" -Homer Simpson
When Italian horror was on its way out, Fulci decided to turn to sexploitation. This was during a period where he split with his writing partner Dardano Sacchetti. Fulci had no one to reign him in. So his latter career took off in terms of craziness. This movie's first 20 minutes has someone playing a saxophone into a woman's vagina.
B
CLASS OF 1984 (1982)
"The future is doomed." A quote I fully expect to see scrawled in the margins of this screenplay. Watching the movie, I didn't know who to hate more: Stegman and his merry band of anarchists or the administration that turned a blind eye to their chaos. The kids are definitely not alright.
Belongs on the shelf between A Clockwork Orange and Over the Edge.
B+
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Quarantine: Days 3, 4 and 5
DAY 3
MIRACLE MILE (1989)
Steve DeJarnett managed to make a treasure largely forgotten. Thanks to Kino Lorber's blu ray edition, people are able to rediscover this hidden gem. Miracle Mile is a meet cute scenario that morphs into a countdown to the nuclear apocalypse. Most romantic nuclear annihilation movie of all time? You be the judge.
This review does a better job than me at selling it
A
CONTAGION (2011)
You don't really know what you're going to get when you pop in a Soderbergh movie. A heist picture, a biopic, a period piece, an action/revenge flick. Not to mention his variety of experimental films. The one thing you can count on is his precision.
Medical dramas that document pandemics, viruses, crises are in short supply. The good ones (see: And the Band Played On) in even shorter supply. The COVID-19 virus has gotten many people hunkering down and watching Contagion. A curveball of black humor toward Sode's movie.
More to come on a decade best of list (yeah, I know I know. I'm workin' on it)
A+
BLOODY MOON (1981)
After Friday the 13th, every studio was scrambling to cash in. 1981 saw an explosion of the slasher film. Jess Franco, the king of Euro sleaze, was commissioned to make one and the result was everything you would expect. Gratuitous nudity, copious violence, and enough sleaze to delight any patron of a 42nd street theater. The centerpiece of this sleazefest is the stone mill power saw sequence. You don't need me to go into any more detail than that to know if you want to see this or not.
B+
DAY 4
POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING (2016)
The Lonely Island music videos produced in the late oughts and early 10s were a life raft to the largely unforgettable SNL skits from those decades. They tapped into what Spinal Tap tapped (no pun intended) into in the 80s. That they would make Popstar only furthers this.
The only other satire this decade that has made me laugh harder than this is What We Do In the Shadows.
A
UNCUT GEMS (2019)
Fourth time seeing this movie. In my Top 10 of the 2010's and just recently slipped into my Top 100.
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (1974)
On par with Die Hard in terms of how it is able to squeeze so much tension tension from a fairly straightforward plot. A bunch of armed men hijack a subway car and demand a $1 million. It's constantly moving between the train, the cops up top, the control board, and the mayor's office. You see all aspects of the heist. Giving it a momentum that doesn't let up until the final frame.
First off, let's look at the crew: the movie is propelled with a great finger thumping, shoe tapping score by David Shire. Imagine being given the task to score both this and The Conversation in the same year. In charge of the editing is Jerry Greenberg. The guy behind The French Connection and Apocalypse Now. With these hands behind the editing, you know there is not a moment wasted and zero fat. The Director of Phtotography Owen Roizman shot The French Connection, The Exorcist, Network and Straight Time.
Secondly, let's look at the cast. Robert Shaw plays a take-no-shit villain who leads 3 other men. Two of which are played by Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo. Our hero is Lt. Garver as played by Walter Matthau. An actor who really hit his stride in the 70s. (A year before this he played the titular character in Charley Varrick.) Tom Pedi plays an over the top station chief. Rounding out the cast is Jerry Stiller. Yes, George Costanza's dad plays one of the men on the control board. How much more New York can you possibly get?
Howard Hawks says you need three great scenes to make a movie. This one has at least a dozen. The flu ridden mayor may go down as one of the more honest portrayals of a politican on screen.
Joseph Sargent made one of the best one two punches in film history- before this, he made White Lightning. This movie has been mined from for the past 40+ years. Right down to the villain's ways of color coding their names. When people look at 70s crime films, Dirty Harry, French Connection, The Godfather and Taxi Driver inevitably come up. This film is every bit as worthy as those.
Gesundheit.
A+
UNSTOPPABLE (2010)
Ridley Vs. Tony. Take your side.
Ridley has never really impressed me visually. Everything post- Blade Runner...hell, everything post Alien has had a bland visual dynamic. I would choose Alien over anything Tony has done. Even from a directorial perspective, the atmosphere Ridley gives the film is unmatched. His better works after Alien were largely carried by interesting scripts: American Gangster (Steven Zaillian, Mark Jacobson), Prometheus (Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof), and woefully underrated and misunderstood The Counselor (Cormac McCarthy).
With Tony, you get a much more consistent visual pallette. When you pop in a Tony Scott directed movie you know it's a Tony Scott movie. Lots of blue filter. Smoke. I'm thinking specifically The Hunger and Beverly Hills Cop 2. The stuff he's done in his later career has him experimenting. Domino, Deja Vu, Man On Fire all being examples. In the last two, Tony finally finding his muse: Denzel Washington.
The cleverness of this movie is that it a runaway train movie without any of the heist baggage that would usually take up the first and second acts. Tony's complete control over the production from design to editing to pacing shows. The kinetic movement in his movies perfectly suit the script here.
Tony Scott unfortunately passed in 2012. He bowed out with one of the highpoints of his career.
A/A-
LOCAL HERO (1983)
After two pulse pounding train movies, this gentle whisper of a movie is exactly what I needed.
Mark Knopfler's score can almost be considered the main character of the movie. Local Hero is deliberately paced to emphasize the sleepy small town life against the pointlessness of corporate life and fast business. This ode to tranquility features beautiful scenery to accentuate the somber lullaby of rural Scotland.
A
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! (1945)
No other filmmaker or in this case filmmakers were as consistent in terms of quality in the 1940s than the Archers. Consisting of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, their films sang with color and movement. A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Black Narcissus have all had varying spots in my top 100 at one time or another. And they are the go to films if I was ever was to show someone the vibrancy of a Technicolor film.
Powell's astounding knack for visuals and Pressburger's wit are here even with the film's black and white aesthetic. The balance of sincerity and playfulness with which the Archers give themselves this film grants it a unique feel. This film, like all of their pictures, is a siren song beckoning you to fall in love with. Your heart will ache with a love of what is possible in cinema after you watch a film of theirs. I know mine always does.
Paul Thomas Anderson cites this as the biggest inspiration for Phantom Thread. When you get to the end it will all make sense.
A
MIRACLE MILE (1989)
Steve DeJarnett managed to make a treasure largely forgotten. Thanks to Kino Lorber's blu ray edition, people are able to rediscover this hidden gem. Miracle Mile is a meet cute scenario that morphs into a countdown to the nuclear apocalypse. Most romantic nuclear annihilation movie of all time? You be the judge.
This review does a better job than me at selling it
A
CONTAGION (2011)
You don't really know what you're going to get when you pop in a Soderbergh movie. A heist picture, a biopic, a period piece, an action/revenge flick. Not to mention his variety of experimental films. The one thing you can count on is his precision.
Medical dramas that document pandemics, viruses, crises are in short supply. The good ones (see: And the Band Played On) in even shorter supply. The COVID-19 virus has gotten many people hunkering down and watching Contagion. A curveball of black humor toward Sode's movie.
More to come on a decade best of list (yeah, I know I know. I'm workin' on it)
A+
BLOODY MOON (1981)
After Friday the 13th, every studio was scrambling to cash in. 1981 saw an explosion of the slasher film. Jess Franco, the king of Euro sleaze, was commissioned to make one and the result was everything you would expect. Gratuitous nudity, copious violence, and enough sleaze to delight any patron of a 42nd street theater. The centerpiece of this sleazefest is the stone mill power saw sequence. You don't need me to go into any more detail than that to know if you want to see this or not.
B+
DAY 4
POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING (2016)
The Lonely Island music videos produced in the late oughts and early 10s were a life raft to the largely unforgettable SNL skits from those decades. They tapped into what Spinal Tap tapped (no pun intended) into in the 80s. That they would make Popstar only furthers this.
The only other satire this decade that has made me laugh harder than this is What We Do In the Shadows.
A
UNCUT GEMS (2019)
Fourth time seeing this movie. In my Top 10 of the 2010's and just recently slipped into my Top 100.
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (1974)
On par with Die Hard in terms of how it is able to squeeze so much tension tension from a fairly straightforward plot. A bunch of armed men hijack a subway car and demand a $1 million. It's constantly moving between the train, the cops up top, the control board, and the mayor's office. You see all aspects of the heist. Giving it a momentum that doesn't let up until the final frame.
First off, let's look at the crew: the movie is propelled with a great finger thumping, shoe tapping score by David Shire. Imagine being given the task to score both this and The Conversation in the same year. In charge of the editing is Jerry Greenberg. The guy behind The French Connection and Apocalypse Now. With these hands behind the editing, you know there is not a moment wasted and zero fat. The Director of Phtotography Owen Roizman shot The French Connection, The Exorcist, Network and Straight Time.
Secondly, let's look at the cast. Robert Shaw plays a take-no-shit villain who leads 3 other men. Two of which are played by Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo. Our hero is Lt. Garver as played by Walter Matthau. An actor who really hit his stride in the 70s. (A year before this he played the titular character in Charley Varrick.) Tom Pedi plays an over the top station chief. Rounding out the cast is Jerry Stiller. Yes, George Costanza's dad plays one of the men on the control board. How much more New York can you possibly get?
Howard Hawks says you need three great scenes to make a movie. This one has at least a dozen. The flu ridden mayor may go down as one of the more honest portrayals of a politican on screen.
Joseph Sargent made one of the best one two punches in film history- before this, he made White Lightning. This movie has been mined from for the past 40+ years. Right down to the villain's ways of color coding their names. When people look at 70s crime films, Dirty Harry, French Connection, The Godfather and Taxi Driver inevitably come up. This film is every bit as worthy as those.
Gesundheit.
A+
UNSTOPPABLE (2010)
Ridley Vs. Tony. Take your side.
Ridley has never really impressed me visually. Everything post- Blade Runner...hell, everything post Alien has had a bland visual dynamic. I would choose Alien over anything Tony has done. Even from a directorial perspective, the atmosphere Ridley gives the film is unmatched. His better works after Alien were largely carried by interesting scripts: American Gangster (Steven Zaillian, Mark Jacobson), Prometheus (Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof), and woefully underrated and misunderstood The Counselor (Cormac McCarthy).
With Tony, you get a much more consistent visual pallette. When you pop in a Tony Scott directed movie you know it's a Tony Scott movie. Lots of blue filter. Smoke. I'm thinking specifically The Hunger and Beverly Hills Cop 2. The stuff he's done in his later career has him experimenting. Domino, Deja Vu, Man On Fire all being examples. In the last two, Tony finally finding his muse: Denzel Washington.
The cleverness of this movie is that it a runaway train movie without any of the heist baggage that would usually take up the first and second acts. Tony's complete control over the production from design to editing to pacing shows. The kinetic movement in his movies perfectly suit the script here.
Tony Scott unfortunately passed in 2012. He bowed out with one of the highpoints of his career.
A/A-
LOCAL HERO (1983)
After two pulse pounding train movies, this gentle whisper of a movie is exactly what I needed.
Mark Knopfler's score can almost be considered the main character of the movie. Local Hero is deliberately paced to emphasize the sleepy small town life against the pointlessness of corporate life and fast business. This ode to tranquility features beautiful scenery to accentuate the somber lullaby of rural Scotland.
A
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! (1945)
No other filmmaker or in this case filmmakers were as consistent in terms of quality in the 1940s than the Archers. Consisting of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, their films sang with color and movement. A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Black Narcissus have all had varying spots in my top 100 at one time or another. And they are the go to films if I was ever was to show someone the vibrancy of a Technicolor film.
Powell's astounding knack for visuals and Pressburger's wit are here even with the film's black and white aesthetic. The balance of sincerity and playfulness with which the Archers give themselves this film grants it a unique feel. This film, like all of their pictures, is a siren song beckoning you to fall in love with. Your heart will ache with a love of what is possible in cinema after you watch a film of theirs. I know mine always does.
Paul Thomas Anderson cites this as the biggest inspiration for Phantom Thread. When you get to the end it will all make sense.
A
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Quarantine: Days 1 and 2
BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974)
Sam Peckinpah always knows how to make you feel like you're in the dirt. His fin de sicle of the West, The Wild Bunch offered up a bloody climax and a clinic in cross cutting shootouts. Peckinpah's greatest strength was his this type editing combined with his use of slow motion.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was reviled upon its release. "A graceless, dire vision of cheap humanity." Roger Ebert offered one of the few praiseworthy review going out of his way to proclaim Peckinpah was "making movies flat out, giving us a desperate character he clearly loves, and asking us to somehow see past the horror and the blood to the sad poem he's trying to write about the human condition."
It many ways, it's a film that says as much about the 70's as any other of Peckinpah's work of that era. The corporatism, corruption and the death of the individual's ability to be left alone. Warren Oates plays Benny, a down on his luck piano player who accepts a bounty to bring back the head of one Alfredo Garcia. Taking his head across Mexico and becoming increasingly insane along the way. In many ways, the movie is a road trip as a fever dream. We see the stops of Mexico along way and the humanity. Upon first seeing The Wild Bunch, the most striking image was a bunch of kids feed a scorpion to an army of ants. The kind of imagery littered throughout Alfredo Garcia.
Another flourish is that the movie gives a character actor in Warren Oates, the lead role. There's certain character actors who always choose to hang back. Thus their name. Only a handful are actually able to break out and carry a film. Phil Hoffman being one of the more contemporary examples.
Blood, sand, tequila and gunpowder are the types of smells you get when you watch this movie. I'm sure Sam wouldn't have had it any other way.
A+
Pairs well with: No Country For Old Men
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (EXTENDED VERSION) (2015)
The directors cut can be exploited for financial gain and has been many a time. A re-release in the theater promising 15 extra minutes or that DVD Director's Cut with an extra scene promising Unrated, juicy bits too hot for theaters. Not here.
Like the best Directors cuts (Aliens, Alien 3 and most recently Doctor Sleep), Tarantino's 8th film now moves to a new rhythm. Clocking in at 180 minutes, the canvas for his confined paranoid pot boiler is as ambitious as an Altman epic. With just 4 chapters instead of 8, the transitions we are so use to are somehow improved with this new cut.
Characters who rarely interacted before now do. Take for instance Chris Mannix and Joe Gage. Their dynamics are strengthened through an exchange early on in Minnie's Haberdashery. Joe Gage's character is given added depth and substantive menace with new scenes. Bob the Mexican is shown to be even chummier. The theatrical presented the film as Major Marquis Warren's story. The Extended Cut turns it into an ensemble film. A+
CRAZY MAMA (1975)
Imagine if American Graffiti crossed paths with Bonnie Clyde. Imagine if that meeting was directed by Jonathan Demme. The man whose manic energy in films like Something Wild is unmatched. Crazy Mama takes the sexual subversion of Something Wild and injects a crime plot into it.
Now I must stress that with Demme, plot is loose. Hanging out with the characters is the name of this game. All set to a wall to wall soundtrack of golden oldies. You see why a director like Paul Thomas Anderson gravitated toward this director so much. Demme's look at cadre of characters without an ounce of judgment the same way PT looked the strange little family of Boogie Nights.
The one thing I've seen in every review of Boogie Nights is how much it feels like Scorsese. The influences are definitely there- the rise and fall structure in particular- yet the beating heart of it involves family dynamics. His Demme influence is every bit a part of this as his influence from Scorsese. And if there ever was one to ask for proof of this, I'd show them Crazy Mama. B+
THE LADY IN RED (1979)
Movies about Dillinger end up one way: Dillinger shot to death in an alley. Michael Mann's Public Enemies being the most recent of the bunch. The script for The Lady In Red John Sayles poses a what if scenario: what if instead of following Dillinger the whole time, we followed the women who wore red. The women who signaled to police that it was Dillinger coming out of the Biograph on July 22, 1934. What if her meet up and eventual witnessing of the death of Dillinger was a bump in the road for her?
In a review for the New Beverly, Quentin Tarantino describes it as not only the most ambitious film Roger Corman and New World Pictures made, but the best script written for an exploitation movie. One of the most notable things about the picture is how Sayles takes the lead Pamela Sue Martin through just about every thirties genre picture: working girl in the big city, story of a prostitute, female convict in a prison and finally the gangster picture.
Boasting a strong supporting cast that includes Robert Conrad, Louise Fletcher, a menacing Christopher Lloyd, Dick Miller (in an particularly sleazy role) and an awesome cameo by Robert Forster. An actor who would go onto to star in Lewis Teague's next film Alligator. A role for which Tarantino would look at as impetus for casting him in Jackie Brown.
Lewis Teague is more well known for Alligator and Cujo. Two exceptional animal attack movies. With a fantastic genre-hopping script from John Sayles, Teague ended up making his finest work.
A/A-
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
I always marvel at the 'boy wonder' filmmakers. With the marvel comes a ball of anxiety right in my gut. PTA makes Hard Eight at 26. Soderbergh makes sex, lies and videotape and wins the Palme d'Or for it at 26. Why even try? When I found out Louis Malle made his stellar debut Elevator to the Gallows at the tender age of 24, I threw my hands up.
Of all the French directors of the New Wave, Malle is easily the most diverse. This came much to Francois Truffaut's frustration after Malle's release of The Fire Within had him trying to jam him into the auterist suit so many directors of the time felt more comfortable in.
He's done comedies (Zazie dans le metro), character studies (The Fire Within), coming of age films (Murmur of the Heart), made forays into surrealism (Black Moon), films about Nazi-occupied France (Au Revoir les Enfants), he's filmed monologues between two academic types (My Dinner With Andre) and made a bunch of documentaries about his travels to India.
All of this started with his 1958 debut. Let's not forget that this film wasn't just Malle's debut. It was our introduction to one of world cinema's leading leadies. Jeanne Moreau. She would find herself working with some of the top autuers of the time including Truffaut, Antonioni, and Welles.
This film follows a businessman who murders his employer, the husband of his mistress. A chain reaction of events follow. Maurice Roney and Jean Pierre Melville regular Lino Ventura round out the cast. The score by Miles Davis propels the whole story into motion right from the opening credits.
To create such a confident, assured crime picture at the age of 24 is a miracle. To have it be a prelude to a string of future classics is another.
A
Sam Peckinpah always knows how to make you feel like you're in the dirt. His fin de sicle of the West, The Wild Bunch offered up a bloody climax and a clinic in cross cutting shootouts. Peckinpah's greatest strength was his this type editing combined with his use of slow motion.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was reviled upon its release. "A graceless, dire vision of cheap humanity." Roger Ebert offered one of the few praiseworthy review going out of his way to proclaim Peckinpah was "making movies flat out, giving us a desperate character he clearly loves, and asking us to somehow see past the horror and the blood to the sad poem he's trying to write about the human condition."
It many ways, it's a film that says as much about the 70's as any other of Peckinpah's work of that era. The corporatism, corruption and the death of the individual's ability to be left alone. Warren Oates plays Benny, a down on his luck piano player who accepts a bounty to bring back the head of one Alfredo Garcia. Taking his head across Mexico and becoming increasingly insane along the way. In many ways, the movie is a road trip as a fever dream. We see the stops of Mexico along way and the humanity. Upon first seeing The Wild Bunch, the most striking image was a bunch of kids feed a scorpion to an army of ants. The kind of imagery littered throughout Alfredo Garcia.
Another flourish is that the movie gives a character actor in Warren Oates, the lead role. There's certain character actors who always choose to hang back. Thus their name. Only a handful are actually able to break out and carry a film. Phil Hoffman being one of the more contemporary examples.
Blood, sand, tequila and gunpowder are the types of smells you get when you watch this movie. I'm sure Sam wouldn't have had it any other way.
A+
Pairs well with: No Country For Old Men
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (EXTENDED VERSION) (2015)
The directors cut can be exploited for financial gain and has been many a time. A re-release in the theater promising 15 extra minutes or that DVD Director's Cut with an extra scene promising Unrated, juicy bits too hot for theaters. Not here.
Like the best Directors cuts (Aliens, Alien 3 and most recently Doctor Sleep), Tarantino's 8th film now moves to a new rhythm. Clocking in at 180 minutes, the canvas for his confined paranoid pot boiler is as ambitious as an Altman epic. With just 4 chapters instead of 8, the transitions we are so use to are somehow improved with this new cut.
Characters who rarely interacted before now do. Take for instance Chris Mannix and Joe Gage. Their dynamics are strengthened through an exchange early on in Minnie's Haberdashery. Joe Gage's character is given added depth and substantive menace with new scenes. Bob the Mexican is shown to be even chummier. The theatrical presented the film as Major Marquis Warren's story. The Extended Cut turns it into an ensemble film. A+
CRAZY MAMA (1975)
Imagine if American Graffiti crossed paths with Bonnie Clyde. Imagine if that meeting was directed by Jonathan Demme. The man whose manic energy in films like Something Wild is unmatched. Crazy Mama takes the sexual subversion of Something Wild and injects a crime plot into it.
Now I must stress that with Demme, plot is loose. Hanging out with the characters is the name of this game. All set to a wall to wall soundtrack of golden oldies. You see why a director like Paul Thomas Anderson gravitated toward this director so much. Demme's look at cadre of characters without an ounce of judgment the same way PT looked the strange little family of Boogie Nights.
The one thing I've seen in every review of Boogie Nights is how much it feels like Scorsese. The influences are definitely there- the rise and fall structure in particular- yet the beating heart of it involves family dynamics. His Demme influence is every bit a part of this as his influence from Scorsese. And if there ever was one to ask for proof of this, I'd show them Crazy Mama. B+
THE LADY IN RED (1979)
Movies about Dillinger end up one way: Dillinger shot to death in an alley. Michael Mann's Public Enemies being the most recent of the bunch. The script for The Lady In Red John Sayles poses a what if scenario: what if instead of following Dillinger the whole time, we followed the women who wore red. The women who signaled to police that it was Dillinger coming out of the Biograph on July 22, 1934. What if her meet up and eventual witnessing of the death of Dillinger was a bump in the road for her?
In a review for the New Beverly, Quentin Tarantino describes it as not only the most ambitious film Roger Corman and New World Pictures made, but the best script written for an exploitation movie. One of the most notable things about the picture is how Sayles takes the lead Pamela Sue Martin through just about every thirties genre picture: working girl in the big city, story of a prostitute, female convict in a prison and finally the gangster picture.
Boasting a strong supporting cast that includes Robert Conrad, Louise Fletcher, a menacing Christopher Lloyd, Dick Miller (in an particularly sleazy role) and an awesome cameo by Robert Forster. An actor who would go onto to star in Lewis Teague's next film Alligator. A role for which Tarantino would look at as impetus for casting him in Jackie Brown.
Lewis Teague is more well known for Alligator and Cujo. Two exceptional animal attack movies. With a fantastic genre-hopping script from John Sayles, Teague ended up making his finest work.
A/A-
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
I always marvel at the 'boy wonder' filmmakers. With the marvel comes a ball of anxiety right in my gut. PTA makes Hard Eight at 26. Soderbergh makes sex, lies and videotape and wins the Palme d'Or for it at 26. Why even try? When I found out Louis Malle made his stellar debut Elevator to the Gallows at the tender age of 24, I threw my hands up.
Of all the French directors of the New Wave, Malle is easily the most diverse. This came much to Francois Truffaut's frustration after Malle's release of The Fire Within had him trying to jam him into the auterist suit so many directors of the time felt more comfortable in.
He's done comedies (Zazie dans le metro), character studies (The Fire Within), coming of age films (Murmur of the Heart), made forays into surrealism (Black Moon), films about Nazi-occupied France (Au Revoir les Enfants), he's filmed monologues between two academic types (My Dinner With Andre) and made a bunch of documentaries about his travels to India.
All of this started with his 1958 debut. Let's not forget that this film wasn't just Malle's debut. It was our introduction to one of world cinema's leading leadies. Jeanne Moreau. She would find herself working with some of the top autuers of the time including Truffaut, Antonioni, and Welles.
This film follows a businessman who murders his employer, the husband of his mistress. A chain reaction of events follow. Maurice Roney and Jean Pierre Melville regular Lino Ventura round out the cast. The score by Miles Davis propels the whole story into motion right from the opening credits.
To create such a confident, assured crime picture at the age of 24 is a miracle. To have it be a prelude to a string of future classics is another.
A
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Exploitastic: Tenement (1985)
Roberta Findlay's career in filmmaking began when she met Michael Findlay. The couple turned moviemaking team would go onto directing roughies. Sexploitation films made on a low budget with gratuitous nudity. While she isn't the first women to dabble in these films (that honor goes to Doris Wishman) she is definitely one of the key figures in the genre. The 60s saw a decline in roughies and a rise in hardcore films. Roberta's career started veering more and more toward horror. Following some misfires in the genre, Roberta and Michael wound up making Snuff. A movie which Roberta saw no profits. At this stage, Roberta and Michael separated.
Roberta's career in sexploitation really took off. She ended up making her tribute to Repulsion, A Women's Torment (1977). Justine (1980), Liquid Assets (1982), and Mascara (1983), a movie she made with Henri Pachard all would follow suit. All of which are available through Vinegar Syndrome.
It wasn't until Tenement, the film we are here to discuss today, that she fully embraced no holds barred exploitation that would make even late 70's era Abel Ferrera tuck his tail between his legs and run.
In an interview with Findlay, she pinpoints her inspiration to her childhood. Living in the rat infested tenements in the South Bronx of New York. Now the surprising thing about Tenement is the date in which it was produced and released- 1985. It's a movie that came 10 years too late. A movie that could have played on any of the 42nd Street theaters. Instead it landed smack dab in the middle of the VHS era.
Tenement is unflinching and unforgettable. It also has a memorable role from Paul Calderon of Pulp Fiction.
You can buy Tenement on blu ray from Shriek Show.
Roberta's career in sexploitation really took off. She ended up making her tribute to Repulsion, A Women's Torment (1977). Justine (1980), Liquid Assets (1982), and Mascara (1983), a movie she made with Henri Pachard all would follow suit. All of which are available through Vinegar Syndrome.
It wasn't until Tenement, the film we are here to discuss today, that she fully embraced no holds barred exploitation that would make even late 70's era Abel Ferrera tuck his tail between his legs and run.
In an interview with Findlay, she pinpoints her inspiration to her childhood. Living in the rat infested tenements in the South Bronx of New York. Now the surprising thing about Tenement is the date in which it was produced and released- 1985. It's a movie that came 10 years too late. A movie that could have played on any of the 42nd Street theaters. Instead it landed smack dab in the middle of the VHS era.
Tenement is unflinching and unforgettable. It also has a memorable role from Paul Calderon of Pulp Fiction.
You can buy Tenement on blu ray from Shriek Show.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Momentum
I
"I can't afford to miss this."
I said this to myself. Twice. The first time was when I went to The Logan Theater to see a movie. I had just come out of the screening and spotted an ad in the lobby:
ANDERSON vs. ANDERSON vs. ANDERSON MONTH
There Will Be Blood July 3-4
Mortal Kombat July 5-8
Bottle Rocket July 9-11
Magnolia July 12-15
Event Horizon July 16-18
Moonrise Kingdom July 19-22
Punch-Drunk Love July 23-25
The Grand Budapest Hotel July 26-29
Resident Evil July 30-Aug 1
The WS Anderson didn't interest me as much. Though seeing Event Horizon for the first time in a theater since 1997 would be trippy. From Wes' stuff, the films I'd want to see on the big screen- Rushmore and Tenenbaums- weren't featured. I knew that my work schedule prevented me from seeing a number of these movies anyway. So I decided to make time to see one. The film I'd always wished I'd seen on the big screen. Magnolia. Having basked in the big screen glory of There Will Be Blood back in '07, Magnolia was the movie. Sorry Punch-Drunk.
This brings us to the second time: when I broke the news to my girlfriend. I'd always wanted her to see the film with me but she kept on holding out. She loved all the other PT Anderson films I showed her. A home viewing of The Master being our third date. Punch Drunk Love awakened a sadness even she couldn't put her finger on.
In an interview for Criterion, Bill Hader said that watching the reaction of someone while watching a movie with you is like watching the movie for the first time. There is a vicarious experience that happens. This magical elixir of a film was fragile to me. I only watched it a handful of times and each time the mood had to strike.
She responded with an enthusiastic yes to seeing the movie and the date was set: July 13, 2019 at 11:00pm.
II
I had arrived at around 7 pm.
The uber trip was $15 and took us down a narrow street with parked cars on both sides.
When we finally got to the theater, it was about 2 pm.
It was a fairly empty theater when we were seated. People gradually started trickling in in twos. A couple occupied a row behind us. Theater lights dimmed. Around 11:05, when the New Line Cinema appeared on screen, a couple came in and sat in the row in front of us and a few seats to the right. I noticed the man had a cup of beer. "Well that's normal. There's a bar in the lounge." I thought to myself. He had a ponytail and talked to his wife from time to time as the movie went on.
The three acts of coincidence played through and the darkly comic beats registered well amongst the audience. The opening went off pretty well. But then again, these things happen all time.
The emotional swell of the movie to me is akin to music. Fittingly, PT compared the structure of the movie to A Day In the Life. A rise, then a crescendo. A descent, a rise then another crescendo. The players were playing the same notes just like the last times I listened. Dixon was rapping about "if the sunshine don't work, the good Lord let the rain in." Claudia was frantically running about her apartment while the throbbing tune of Momentum was nearly drowning out the knocks on her door from Jim Kurring.
None of the instruments were out of tune.
There was one element out of place. A commentary track in the middle of this beautiful chaos. It was the man with the ponytail.
There were two people seated in front on him. About 50 minutes in, after incessant interruption after interruption, the couple got up. An employee arrived in their place. The same one who tore my ticket at the concession booth. "Will you please lower your voice? Other people are trying to watch the movie."
A couple minutes went by and I could hear the banter from him to his wife. The preposterousness of someone having to get up and complain about him.
A woman with dark curled hair and formal wear came in and sat in the row to the left of the row I was sitting in. The ponytail man raised his voice to the screen.
"SSSHHHHH"
It came from the woman whom I had figured now was the manager. She got up, went to the man and told them they will have to be quiet. Even without the hints in attire, the authoritative voice with which she used was markedly different from the ticket taker.
"Is it that serious?" The man would say a few minutes after she left. He refused to be quiet. This man grooved to his own soundtrack.
"I can't afford to miss this."
I said this to myself. Twice. The first time was when I went to The Logan Theater to see a movie. I had just come out of the screening and spotted an ad in the lobby:
ANDERSON vs. ANDERSON vs. ANDERSON MONTH
There Will Be Blood July 3-4
Mortal Kombat July 5-8
Bottle Rocket July 9-11
Magnolia July 12-15
Event Horizon July 16-18
Moonrise Kingdom July 19-22
Punch-Drunk Love July 23-25
The Grand Budapest Hotel July 26-29
Resident Evil July 30-Aug 1
The WS Anderson didn't interest me as much. Though seeing Event Horizon for the first time in a theater since 1997 would be trippy. From Wes' stuff, the films I'd want to see on the big screen- Rushmore and Tenenbaums- weren't featured. I knew that my work schedule prevented me from seeing a number of these movies anyway. So I decided to make time to see one. The film I'd always wished I'd seen on the big screen. Magnolia. Having basked in the big screen glory of There Will Be Blood back in '07, Magnolia was the movie. Sorry Punch-Drunk.
This brings us to the second time: when I broke the news to my girlfriend. I'd always wanted her to see the film with me but she kept on holding out. She loved all the other PT Anderson films I showed her. A home viewing of The Master being our third date. Punch Drunk Love awakened a sadness even she couldn't put her finger on.
In an interview for Criterion, Bill Hader said that watching the reaction of someone while watching a movie with you is like watching the movie for the first time. There is a vicarious experience that happens. This magical elixir of a film was fragile to me. I only watched it a handful of times and each time the mood had to strike.
She responded with an enthusiastic yes to seeing the movie and the date was set: July 13, 2019 at 11:00pm.
II
I had arrived at around 7 pm.
The uber trip was $15 and took us down a narrow street with parked cars on both sides.
When we finally got to the theater, it was about 2 pm.
It was a fairly empty theater when we were seated. People gradually started trickling in in twos. A couple occupied a row behind us. Theater lights dimmed. Around 11:05, when the New Line Cinema appeared on screen, a couple came in and sat in the row in front of us and a few seats to the right. I noticed the man had a cup of beer. "Well that's normal. There's a bar in the lounge." I thought to myself. He had a ponytail and talked to his wife from time to time as the movie went on.
The three acts of coincidence played through and the darkly comic beats registered well amongst the audience. The opening went off pretty well. But then again, these things happen all time.
The emotional swell of the movie to me is akin to music. Fittingly, PT compared the structure of the movie to A Day In the Life. A rise, then a crescendo. A descent, a rise then another crescendo. The players were playing the same notes just like the last times I listened. Dixon was rapping about "if the sunshine don't work, the good Lord let the rain in." Claudia was frantically running about her apartment while the throbbing tune of Momentum was nearly drowning out the knocks on her door from Jim Kurring.
None of the instruments were out of tune.
There was one element out of place. A commentary track in the middle of this beautiful chaos. It was the man with the ponytail.
There were two people seated in front on him. About 50 minutes in, after incessant interruption after interruption, the couple got up. An employee arrived in their place. The same one who tore my ticket at the concession booth. "Will you please lower your voice? Other people are trying to watch the movie."
A couple minutes went by and I could hear the banter from him to his wife. The preposterousness of someone having to get up and complain about him.
A woman with dark curled hair and formal wear came in and sat in the row to the left of the row I was sitting in. The ponytail man raised his voice to the screen.
"SSSHHHHH"
It came from the woman whom I had figured now was the manager. She got up, went to the man and told them they will have to be quiet. Even without the hints in attire, the authoritative voice with which she used was markedly different from the ticket taker.
"Is it that serious?" The man would say a few minutes after she left. He refused to be quiet. This man grooved to his own soundtrack.
An anger bloomed in my chest and branched outward to my limbs. I started doing what I normally do in these situations. I started nervously picking my skin. Even Charlotte was getting frustrated.
The scene came on when Dixon went in a passed out Linda's car and started taking her money. "Oh man, that is so racist. That's so wrong."
The What Do Kids Know? scene came on and Luis Guzman came on the screen The ponytail man erupted "Finally! A Latino man on screen! Benny Blanco from the Bronx"
His wife told him to be quiet. "It's okay." He whispered. "If we only talk like this, then we won't get in trouble."
Scene after scene went by and each one was pockmarked with this man's interruptions. "I don't know why you're being like this. It's a good movie." his wife would said to him.
I've had many theater going experiences where the guy in front or in back of me is talking or a phone is on and it's glow catches the corner of my eye. This was different. Even after the manager told the patron to be quiet, it only got worse.
Two and a half hours. Two and a half hours of this. In all my years of going to movies, not once did I get up and leave. If you were to tell me it would be during my favorite movie, I would have shook my head at you and laughed. Yet my options I was cycling to narrowed the angrier I got. I was left with two: make a smartass comment to the man since that was the only wavelength he was in tune to or get up and leave. I couldn't have this asshole ruin such an orgasmic ending to Magnolia after ruining so much of the movie so far.
"There's about 7 people here. Just watch it on fuckin' DVD."
"Let's go." Charlotte said. The voice was one of relief. We got up and left.
As I made my way through the lobby I approached the ticket taker and told him that the man whom he told to be quiet was still talking. He said he would inform the manager. I told him that we were leaving anyway.
I thought about how much this cost. Both tickets, the uber rides to and from the theater. It didn't matter as nearly as much as the experience. This was my first chance to see Magnolia on the big screen and I was cheated out of it by an obnoxious asshole. More importantly it was an experience I wanted Charlotte to have. To finally see the movie I'd always raved about to her as my favorite film.
I debated if I should go back into the theater or not to get a refund. Would it be worth risking this asshole getting in my face? Charlotte didn't think so. After weighing the decision and concluding it would be best if we just left, we took an uber home. We had left before the good Lord bring the rain in.
So Now Then
A week later, Charlotte and I would watch the ending of Magnolia in her apartment. If you can imagine listening to the first 4 minutes of A Day In the Life and waiting until a week to listen to the other minute and 12 seconds, you get a good idea of what it felt like to watch Magnolia this way.
Movies have marked many a special occasion between us. Our first date was Inside Llewyn Davis. Our second date: Her. Nearly 6 years of us going to the movies and nothing like this had occured. Why this movie? Was it chance? Do these things really happen all the time?
I would eventually return to the Logan theater to see Midsommar and things were normal. Unruly patrons were apart of my cinematic experiences after this one and I'm almost sure that they will continue to be unless it's a specialty theater like The Music Box. Given a good crowd, a good atmosphere, the theatrical experience can be a truly special thing. It's what every one of us wants when we walk through those doors. That didn't happen on July 13, 2019.
What happened was another reminder of why people would rather sit home and watch NetFlix.
The scene came on when Dixon went in a passed out Linda's car and started taking her money. "Oh man, that is so racist. That's so wrong."
The What Do Kids Know? scene came on and Luis Guzman came on the screen The ponytail man erupted "Finally! A Latino man on screen! Benny Blanco from the Bronx"
His wife told him to be quiet. "It's okay." He whispered. "If we only talk like this, then we won't get in trouble."
Scene after scene went by and each one was pockmarked with this man's interruptions. "I don't know why you're being like this. It's a good movie." his wife would said to him.
I've had many theater going experiences where the guy in front or in back of me is talking or a phone is on and it's glow catches the corner of my eye. This was different. Even after the manager told the patron to be quiet, it only got worse.
Two and a half hours. Two and a half hours of this. In all my years of going to movies, not once did I get up and leave. If you were to tell me it would be during my favorite movie, I would have shook my head at you and laughed. Yet my options I was cycling to narrowed the angrier I got. I was left with two: make a smartass comment to the man since that was the only wavelength he was in tune to or get up and leave. I couldn't have this asshole ruin such an orgasmic ending to Magnolia after ruining so much of the movie so far.
"There's about 7 people here. Just watch it on fuckin' DVD."
"Let's go." Charlotte said. The voice was one of relief. We got up and left.
As I made my way through the lobby I approached the ticket taker and told him that the man whom he told to be quiet was still talking. He said he would inform the manager. I told him that we were leaving anyway.
I thought about how much this cost. Both tickets, the uber rides to and from the theater. It didn't matter as nearly as much as the experience. This was my first chance to see Magnolia on the big screen and I was cheated out of it by an obnoxious asshole. More importantly it was an experience I wanted Charlotte to have. To finally see the movie I'd always raved about to her as my favorite film.
I debated if I should go back into the theater or not to get a refund. Would it be worth risking this asshole getting in my face? Charlotte didn't think so. After weighing the decision and concluding it would be best if we just left, we took an uber home. We had left before the good Lord bring the rain in.
So Now Then
A week later, Charlotte and I would watch the ending of Magnolia in her apartment. If you can imagine listening to the first 4 minutes of A Day In the Life and waiting until a week to listen to the other minute and 12 seconds, you get a good idea of what it felt like to watch Magnolia this way.
Movies have marked many a special occasion between us. Our first date was Inside Llewyn Davis. Our second date: Her. Nearly 6 years of us going to the movies and nothing like this had occured. Why this movie? Was it chance? Do these things really happen all the time?
I would eventually return to the Logan theater to see Midsommar and things were normal. Unruly patrons were apart of my cinematic experiences after this one and I'm almost sure that they will continue to be unless it's a specialty theater like The Music Box. Given a good crowd, a good atmosphere, the theatrical experience can be a truly special thing. It's what every one of us wants when we walk through those doors. That didn't happen on July 13, 2019.
What happened was another reminder of why people would rather sit home and watch NetFlix.
EXPLOITASTIC: POOR PRETTY EDDIE
A new feature that will introduce you to exploitation, sexploitation, blaxpoitation and all of its other subgenres from the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s.
Poor Pretty Eddie is a 1975 flick from Richard Robinson and David Worth and concerns a pop singer Liz Weatherly (Leslie Uggams) who heads out on a road trip. Her car breaks down near an isolated lodge in the backwoods and things start to get weird. The inhabitants of the lodge are an ex burleqsque star named Bertha played by Shelley Winters and her much younger boyfriend, the titular Eddie. An Elvis impersonator who becomes obssessed with Liz.
Character actors Slim Pickens and Dub Taylor co star.
What's interesting about this one is that straddles so many sub genres. It has a black female lead. Yet it's set in the backwoods. So it isn't full on hicksploitation. It goes by two other titles: Black Vengeance. A title that caters to its blaxpoitation leanings. And Redneck County, a title made for its redneck leanings.
Imagine if Lynch and Tarantino had sex during Deliverance and this is what you would get.
Poor Pretty Eddie is a 1975 flick from Richard Robinson and David Worth and concerns a pop singer Liz Weatherly (Leslie Uggams) who heads out on a road trip. Her car breaks down near an isolated lodge in the backwoods and things start to get weird. The inhabitants of the lodge are an ex burleqsque star named Bertha played by Shelley Winters and her much younger boyfriend, the titular Eddie. An Elvis impersonator who becomes obssessed with Liz.
Character actors Slim Pickens and Dub Taylor co star.
What's interesting about this one is that straddles so many sub genres. It has a black female lead. Yet it's set in the backwoods. So it isn't full on hicksploitation. It goes by two other titles: Black Vengeance. A title that caters to its blaxpoitation leanings. And Redneck County, a title made for its redneck leanings.
Imagine if Lynch and Tarantino had sex during Deliverance and this is what you would get.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Odd Obsessions
We're getting lazy. This critique has been offered on more than one occasion. Not just in the way we create but in the way we consume. The advent of NetFlix and streaming has shuddered the video stores. While boutique labels like Arrow and Criterion allow access to the best looking releases of the films we love. Criterion itself has its own streaming service now.
Of course, it wasn't always like this.
The video store offered a tactile, hands-on experience. It was the playground for any and all loversd of physical media. The sandbox we grew up in. This we can all agree on. Yet the weepy eyed nostalgia tends to blur the actual experience we all had at Blockbuster Video. I can recall going their multiple times. It's how I discovered Audition. Yet for every Audition, there was a Carnosaur. The bargain bins offering $10 movies. The clerk who really just wants you to plop down your money so they can get one step closer to leaving. The memories that stuck with me most were carbed not out of blue and yellow. It was the ma and pop stores. Beggars Video was apart of the Beggars Pizza brand, which just happened to be located next door. Any customer who came in was given free squares of pizza. It was there that two important pieces of history occured.
The first being a glass display case that housed a Chucky doll. Always taunting me before I exited the store. The second being the Faces of Death series.
When I see documentaries recalling the importance of video stores or directors' trip down memory lanes, one thing that causes my synapses to fire rapidly is when they bring up the forbidden fruit. The movies you find with a brown paper bag over them. Faces of Death was the closest I got to this titilation.
Then there was Video Corner. The first video store I knew that had a porn section.
Now keep in mind, all of this was within three blocks in both the west and east direction of my house. It was primo real estate.
I didn't have access to such utopias as CineFile video. So I would eventually create my own paradise in my room.
The way I organize my shelves are alphabetized by director, country and genre. Given that horror and exploitation occupy a good chunk of my collection, they are the only specific genres entire sections are dedicated to.
American/British/Canadian Directors
Foreign Films
I. Asian
-Japanese
a. Classic (Ichikawa, Kobayashi, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ozu, Shindo)
b. New Wave (Imamura, Kurahara, Oshima, Suzuki, Teshigahara)
c. Contemporary (Fukasaku, Itami, Kore-eda, Miike, Sono)
-South Korean (Chang-dong, Chan-wok, Jee-woon, Joon-ho, Ki-Young)
-China and Taiwan (Hu, Kar-Wai, Ming-liang, Woo, Yang)
II. European
-France
a. Classic: Becker, Bresson, Clouzot, Dassin, Melville, Ophuls, Tati, Vigo
b. New Wave: Godard, Malle, Resnais, Truffaut, Varda
c. Contemporary: Audiard, Belvaux, Breillat, Jeunet, Kassovitz, Kechiche, Noe
-Italy (Antonioni, Bertolucci, DeSica, Fellini, Pasolini, Petri, Risi, Rosellini, Sorrentino)
-Germany (Fassbinder, Herzog, Murnau, Schlondorff, Wenders)
-Russia (Kalatzokov, Klimov, Shepitko, Tarkovsky, Zyvagintsev)
-Czech Republic (Chitlova, Vlacil)
-Poland (Kieslowski, Zulawski)
-Denmark (Dreyer, Vintberg, Von Trier)
-Austria (Haneke)
III. Mexico, Central and Latin America (Bunuel, Camus, Cazals, Cuaron, Del Toro, Erice, Guerra, Innaritu, Jodorowsky, Meirelles, Sauros)
IV. Africa, India (Ray)
Exploitation
-Jack Hill
-Herschell Gordon Lewis
-Russ Meyer
-John Waters
Blaxpoitation
Sexploitation
Car Chases
Ozploitation
Revenge
Grindhouse Releasing
Blue Underground
Horror
-Assorted
-Directors: Carpenter, Cronenberg, Hooper, Romero
-Franchises: Halloween, Friday the 13th, Elm Street, Hellraiser, Texas Chainsaw Massacre
-Silent and Classic Horror (anything up to the 50's with Universal Monsters and Lewton given seperate sections)
-Italian Genre (Argento, Bava, DiLeo, Fulci, Lenzi, Martino, Soavi, Cannibal flicks)
-Scream Factory
-Arrow Video
-Vinegar Syndrome
-Severin
Experimental (Anger, Fricke, Hertzfeldt, etc.)
Documentary
There was a video store a few years ago that caught my attention. Odd Obsession Movies. It was located in the Wicker Park area of downtown Chicago. Wicker Park was already home to several hotspots: Myopic Books, Quimby's Bookstore, Wormhole Coffee, Reckless Records.
I made my first visit to Odd Obsession on January 28, 2020. It took me long enough. The hype was real and every bit earned. Entire walls dedicated to exploitation and sexploitation. Films arranged by director, country, genre. From film noir classics to contemporary. Staff recommendations. The works. There were even tapestries depicting Ghana film posters.
Renting movies for the first time in more than a decade felt...satisfying. The first batch being Takashi Kitano's Fireworks, Babas Lunas' Anguish and Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock.
I've found a new place to call home.
Of course, it wasn't always like this.
The video store offered a tactile, hands-on experience. It was the playground for any and all loversd of physical media. The sandbox we grew up in. This we can all agree on. Yet the weepy eyed nostalgia tends to blur the actual experience we all had at Blockbuster Video. I can recall going their multiple times. It's how I discovered Audition. Yet for every Audition, there was a Carnosaur. The bargain bins offering $10 movies. The clerk who really just wants you to plop down your money so they can get one step closer to leaving. The memories that stuck with me most were carbed not out of blue and yellow. It was the ma and pop stores. Beggars Video was apart of the Beggars Pizza brand, which just happened to be located next door. Any customer who came in was given free squares of pizza. It was there that two important pieces of history occured.
The first being a glass display case that housed a Chucky doll. Always taunting me before I exited the store. The second being the Faces of Death series.
Then there was Video Corner. The first video store I knew that had a porn section.
Now keep in mind, all of this was within three blocks in both the west and east direction of my house. It was primo real estate.
I didn't have access to such utopias as CineFile video. So I would eventually create my own paradise in my room.
The way I organize my shelves are alphabetized by director, country and genre. Given that horror and exploitation occupy a good chunk of my collection, they are the only specific genres entire sections are dedicated to.
American/British/Canadian Directors
Foreign Films
I. Asian
-Japanese
a. Classic (Ichikawa, Kobayashi, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ozu, Shindo)
b. New Wave (Imamura, Kurahara, Oshima, Suzuki, Teshigahara)
c. Contemporary (Fukasaku, Itami, Kore-eda, Miike, Sono)
-South Korean (Chang-dong, Chan-wok, Jee-woon, Joon-ho, Ki-Young)
-China and Taiwan (Hu, Kar-Wai, Ming-liang, Woo, Yang)
II. European
-France
a. Classic: Becker, Bresson, Clouzot, Dassin, Melville, Ophuls, Tati, Vigo
b. New Wave: Godard, Malle, Resnais, Truffaut, Varda
c. Contemporary: Audiard, Belvaux, Breillat, Jeunet, Kassovitz, Kechiche, Noe
-Italy (Antonioni, Bertolucci, DeSica, Fellini, Pasolini, Petri, Risi, Rosellini, Sorrentino)
-Germany (Fassbinder, Herzog, Murnau, Schlondorff, Wenders)
-Russia (Kalatzokov, Klimov, Shepitko, Tarkovsky, Zyvagintsev)
-Czech Republic (Chitlova, Vlacil)
-Poland (Kieslowski, Zulawski)
-Denmark (Dreyer, Vintberg, Von Trier)
-Austria (Haneke)
III. Mexico, Central and Latin America (Bunuel, Camus, Cazals, Cuaron, Del Toro, Erice, Guerra, Innaritu, Jodorowsky, Meirelles, Sauros)
IV. Africa, India (Ray)
Exploitation
-Jack Hill
-Herschell Gordon Lewis
-Russ Meyer
-John Waters
Blaxpoitation
Sexploitation
Car Chases
Ozploitation
Revenge
Grindhouse Releasing
Blue Underground
Horror
-Assorted
-Directors: Carpenter, Cronenberg, Hooper, Romero
-Franchises: Halloween, Friday the 13th, Elm Street, Hellraiser, Texas Chainsaw Massacre
-Silent and Classic Horror (anything up to the 50's with Universal Monsters and Lewton given seperate sections)
-Italian Genre (Argento, Bava, DiLeo, Fulci, Lenzi, Martino, Soavi, Cannibal flicks)
-Scream Factory
-Arrow Video
-Vinegar Syndrome
-Severin
Experimental (Anger, Fricke, Hertzfeldt, etc.)
Documentary
There was a video store a few years ago that caught my attention. Odd Obsession Movies. It was located in the Wicker Park area of downtown Chicago. Wicker Park was already home to several hotspots: Myopic Books, Quimby's Bookstore, Wormhole Coffee, Reckless Records.
I made my first visit to Odd Obsession on January 28, 2020. It took me long enough. The hype was real and every bit earned. Entire walls dedicated to exploitation and sexploitation. Films arranged by director, country, genre. From film noir classics to contemporary. Staff recommendations. The works. There were even tapestries depicting Ghana film posters.
Renting movies for the first time in more than a decade felt...satisfying. The first batch being Takashi Kitano's Fireworks, Babas Lunas' Anguish and Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock.
I've found a new place to call home.
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