FIrst Rule of Movie Club is: you don't talk about Movie Club. But you do share, because sharing is caring.
They sure don't make 'em like this anymore- a 1933 indie film by experimental filmmaker Dudley Murphy with the distinction of being the first major movie to star an African-American. It would take another two decades before Hollywood would attempt that "audacious" idea, but even today, The Emperor Jones cuts deep. Starring the great Paul … Continue reading The Emperor Jones
There's something great about that string of black-and-white movies from the early 60's that I'll never grow tired of. Shot in stark, sharp black-and-white, with intense, dramatic framing and balls-to-the-wall dialogue and situations, these movies have teeth in a way no other era of film quite manages. Movies like The Pawnbroker and Fate is the … Continue reading Ladybug Ladybug
A classic Bud Dry commercial from the 80's rhetorically asks "Why are foreign movies so... foreign?" while it throws as many tropes as possible on screen: poorly dubbed Italian, grainy black and white film, odd angles, melodramatic acting, and, of course... clowns. And while that particular reference is clearly Fellini, its point- and the point … Continue reading Dáblova Past (The Devil’s Trap)
Chicago is one of the biggest musical hits in history, yet few remember its roots: a play by the same name based on real-life events in the 20's when the American press converted several murdering females into overnight celebs. But way back in 1942, the great William Wellman turned that play into a film- a … Continue reading Roxie Hart
Hollywood has made so many movies in the past 100 years, it's only natural that most of them will be forgotten as generations die out. 1964's Fate is the Hunter is fated to be one of those- a genre picture that these days, none of us remember. Which is too bad- it's a great film, … Continue reading Fate is the Hunter
Looking for an experimental dystopian science fiction tale about radical feminist terrorists who kidnap young men, brainwash them, and release them into society in order to carry out their agenda (in this case, political assassination)? Well, whatever you just pictured in your mind as you read that description is probably nothing like Taking Tiger Mountain, … Continue reading Taking Tiger Mountain
The great Ken Loach usually makes neorealist dramas that feel like documentaries, but with The Spirit of '45, he actually gives us a documentary about a movement in England that clearly informed Loach's entire life and career. Between WWI and WWII, England, like much of the Western World, suffered through an economic slump that makes … Continue reading The Spirit of ’45
File this one under "You Can't Make Movies Like This Anymore." 1933's Murders in the Zoo, directed by Edward Sutherland, is a pre-code, proto-horror story about a sadistic zoologist named Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) who seems to have no problem killing any of his wife Evelyn's lovers through some pretty vicious methods. One might have … Continue reading Murders in the Zoo
Nina Menkes is not a well known filmmaker, unless you're really involved in the world of Art Films, in which case you know how praised she is as someone who pushes the boundaries of narrative cinema. Phantom Love made big splashes in that small, but important world- a story about Lulu, a woman who is … Continue reading Phantom Love
Having chronicled Quentin Tarantino's career as the tragic demise of a talented young'n with lots of promise but no guidance to help him out of his immature, self-made noose, we thought we should end this cinematic analysis by going back to the beginning: Quentin's first, unfinished, and completely amateur "feature" made with his pals during … Continue reading The Demise of Quentin Tarantino, Part 4: My Best Friend’s Birthday
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