Tag: U.S. Indie Film Blu Ray Review
Criterion Collection: love jones (1997) | Blu-ray Review
An under-appreciated diamond in the rough which arrived during an explosion of Black indie cinema in the 1990s, love jones, the directorial debut...
Shallow Grave(s): Revenge Twice Told in Zarchi’s Landmark “I Spit on Your Grave” Blu-ray Box Set Review
Chances are, if you’re familiar with grindhouse/exploitation films of the 1970s or the output of later auteurs these titles influenced, you’ve heard and likely...
Exes and Ohs: Regression Tension in Tewkesbury’s Debut “Old Boyfriends” (1979) | Blu-ray Review
“What happens when you see them again?” reads the tagline for Old Boyfriends (1979), the directorial debut of screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury, a question which...
Criterion Collection: Bruce Lee – His Greatest Hits | Blu-ray Review
Bruce Lee is and forever will be the world’s greatest martial arts film star, perhaps only rivalled in iconicity by Jackie Chan. Both martial...
Woman Thou Art Loosed: McKee Mines Our Brutal, Inherent Misogyny in Grisly “The Woman” (2011) | Blu-ray Review
Arguably director Lucky McKee’s most radically troubling film is his 2011 hotbed of subversive themes, The Woman, which generated much distress upon its premiere...
Diamonds Aren’t a Girl’s Best Friend in Pallardy’s Camp Saga “White Fire” | Blu-ray Review
In the realm of failed art exists a select category of cinema so terribly conceived those deserving of its distinction are worthy of timeless...
Written on the Wind: Mastorakis’ Grecian Thriller a Find for Foster Fans with “The Wind” | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Video continues to champion and resurrect the filmography of B-movie director Nico Mastorakis with his 1986 title The Wind, which was released theatrically...
Criterion Collection: An Unmarried Woman (1978) | Blu-ray Review
Academy-Award nominated writer/director Paul Mazursky makes his first entry into the Criterion canon with his sixth feature, the seminal (first-wave) feminist landmark An Unmarried...
Criterion Collection: Husbands (1970) | Blu-ray Review
Husbands (1970), the fourth feature of auteur John Cassavetes, patron saint of American independent cinema, would end up being the first showcase for the...
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II | Blu-ray Review
Kino Lorber unleashes their second volume of forgotten film noir classics with Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II which includes three distinctly...
Dancing Like She’s Never Danced Before: Lustig’s Grisly Grindhouse “Maniac” Gets an Ultra Redux | Blu-ray Review
Perhaps one of the oddest inspirations which resulted from William Lustig’s grindhouse narrative debut, which became a major cult classic, was Michael Sembello’s song,...
Babes in Toyland: Brasloff’s Kooky Kink Surfaces in Toys Are Not For Children | Blu-ray Review
If you’re in search for a forgotten psychosexual oddity, look no further than director Stanley H. Brasloff’s second (and unfortunately last) 1972 feature Toys...
Some Like Them Young in Wilder’s “The Major and the Minor” (1942) | Blu-ray Review
Billy Wilder became an indelible fixture of American cinema with his iconic noir masterpiece, 1944’s Double Indemnity, going on to direct some of the studio...
Criterion Collection: Klute (1971) | Blu-ray Review
“I have no idea what I’m going to do,” and “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” are among some of the lines...
Catholics for the Kill in Sole’s Classic Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) | Blu-ray Review
Outside of Larry Cohen and Brian De Palma, there’s a dearth of high-profile genre auteurs in the canon of 1970s American horror cinema. One...
Criterion Collection: Hedwig and the Angry Inch | Blu-ray Review
Few queer films have pierced the contemporary cultural nexus as effectively as John Cameron Mitchell’s beloved 2001 directorial debut Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...
Lelio Runs Pell Mell with Ms. Gloria Bell (2018) | Blu-ray Review
Sebastián Lelio scored his best domestic box office success to date with Gloria Bell, his English language remake of 2013’s Gloria, clocking in at...
Criterion Collection: Wanda (1970) | Blu-ray Review
A director and a film unfortunately stymied shortly after its premiere, Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) remains a singularly unwavering portrait of neo-realistic gender identity...
Criterion Collection: Detour (1945) | Blu-ray Review
An old American proverb reads “Excuses are merely nails used to build a house of failure.” It’s also a succinct paraphrase for the trajectory...
Criterion Collection: To Sleep with Anger | Blu-Ray Review
Interlopers have long been meddlesome disruptors in cinema and literature. From those whose presence is expected to those who are unpleasant surprises, their catalyzing...
Criterion Collection: Mikey and Nicky (1976) | Blu-ray Review
Of the four noted directorial efforts from writer-director Elaine May, whose career behind the camera ended after the critical debacle of 1987’s infamous...
Schnabel Paints Another Portrait of an Artist with “At Eternity’s Gate” | Blu-ray Review
Director Julian Schnabel broke an eight-year hiatus with At Eternity’s Gate, a film destined to enter a pantheon of cinematic snapshots on troubled artist...
Perilous Passions in Aldrich’s Neglected “The Grissom Gang” (1971) | Blu-ray Review
And the final nail in the coffin of Aldrich Studios was 1971’s The Grissom Gang, an adaptation of famed UK noir writer James Hadley...
Criterion Collection: Sisters (1973) | Blu-ray Review
“What the Devil hath joined together, let no man cast asunder,” reads the gleefully blasphemous tagline of Brian De Palma’s 1973 horror film Sisters,...
Post Rings Twice with Devious The Baby (1973) | Blu-ray Review
A prolific television director throughout the 1950s and 60s (the 1955 series “Waterfront” would land him a Primetime Emmy nod), Ted Post benefitted from...
Criterion Collection: Smithereens (1982) | Blu-ray Review
Known primarily for generating Madonna’s acting career in 1985 with her sophomore film Desperately Seeking Susan, director Susan Seidelman was one of the most...