Clik here to view.
IN FABRIC
A remarkable departure in this, the latest from Peter Strickland. I blanche when directors of offbeat movies are casually lumped in with David Lynch, but Strickland earns such a comparison, sharing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
YBCA: IN A GLASS CAGE
It isn't necessarily time to fulfill a semi-promise made last year, but memories remain of the still-ended film program at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Some memories are stronger than others, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UNHOLY TRINITY: A Lovecraft Triptych
Over the course of his career San Francisco theatre artist Stuart Bousel has crafted a staggering number of plays as adapter, writer, and director. Even his plays rooted in the most immediate and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MACABRE
“Ladies and gentlemen, for the next hour and fifteen minutes you will be shown things so terrifying that the management of this theatre is deeply concerned for your welfare…”In the quiet but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
top twenty and change, 2019
THE TOP TWENTY (in order seen)The Image BookUsAn Elephant Sitting StillHigh LifeThe Hidden CityThe NightingaleAsako I & IIThe SouvenirThe Cleaning LadyAnimaOnce Upon A Time...In HollywoodAmazing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Office Oscar Pool, And How To Run It
First, tell your supervisor that you want to do it. Don't ask "Hey, is it okay if I put together an Oscar pool for the office?" Say, "I think it'd be cool and fun if I put together an Oscar pool for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CREPÚSCULO
Doctor Alejandro Mangina is so sick he doesn't want to get well. Specifically, he has encountered old flame Lucia, posing for an art class, shortly before leaving the country and the chance encounter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unnamed Footage Festival: Five Films
The Unnamed Footage Festival holds a unique place among indie genre film festivals. It was initially conceived to spotlight new works in found footage horror; the subgenre started (in earnest) with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE HUNT
Twelve...eleven people with remarkably similar backgrounds find themselves on an open grassy plain, and are picked off with startling alacrity by unseen hunters. The quarries quickly realize they have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
70s-ish Horror Stay At Home Double Feature
Different times. This thing has sat unwritten for a while - it seems stupid to write about cult movies when such large and devastating issues are unfolding outside the House of Sparrows. But the House...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Imported: The LIst
A link-crazy post, to keep the House tidy. Your proprietor is on Letterboxd, and will link to my reviews of the films below there. Top Ten Movies seen for the first time during lockdown, on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ZABRISKIE POINT
It ain't no fucking metaphor. Especially now.And it wasn't the craziest idea back in 1970, either - Michelangelo Antonioni wasn't the first foreign filmmaker courted by Hollywood (Jacques Demy covered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thirteen
0. I'm not necessarily a fan of the slasher genre, though I've seen an adequate horror-lover's share of them. With many, many hours to fill under COVID, and the franchise almost entirely available on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ANGST
Based on the disturbing case of Werner Kniesek, a man who committed multiple murders in a brief period of release from confinement, this movie captures the scheming of an anomic young man fresh out of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
quarante et un minutes pour le 3 decembre
fast track associationsappear on paradeappear on paradeGoing on nine months under shelter-in-place, finding occasion today to celebrate 90 years of a filmmaker who has changed how we view cinema, how...
View ArticleClik here to view.
top two, 2020
It's too, too late for a list, and I'm not even qualified to make one, really; for most of the last year my movies have come through the same screen as my news, my work, my socializing, etc. etc. etc....
View ArticleClik here to view.
the cat-turd on the cupcake
So late October 1993 I'm visiting a friend. Said friend is busy the weekdays I'm with him so I'm alone in his place. Waking up on my own damn schedule, I've time to myself. On two of those days, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE GRAPES OF DEATH
Some of the greatest horror films are the saddest, the ones that capture the melancholy of being far from what you know, and knowing you will never return. The empty train that takes you to a world you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BENEDETTA
Anyone cornered by an atheist at a cocktail party knows that militant denial can be just as tedious as blind piety. You don't have to be among the faithful to be bored by films that bash religion. I'm...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (2022)
It's very much an old master returning to the stage with a greatest hits collection, which is no bad thing. There remains much pleasure to be experienced seeing and feeling the familiar...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BLOOD DAUGHTER
This will not be an objective post by any means - it's as much a celebration as a review or analysis. The fact is, my good friend and occasional collaborator Bryan Enk is screening his new work this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
-So this thing came out when I was ten, and I remember two things about its release: first, the poster declaring that it contained "SIX OF THE MOST BIZARRE MURDERS YOU WILL EVER SEE." Second, a little...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unnamed Footage Festival 6(66) - five days!
My friends are back (and this is therefore not a totally objective post) with a new iteration of the Unnamed Footage Festival, a celebration of found footage horror, faux documentaries, narrative films...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WILL-O'-THE-WISP
"...it gives us wood, and so many wonders..."Joao Pedro Rodrigues has a lot on his mind here, and just comes out and says it. Were he a younger filmmaker one might see this 67-minute opus as a kind of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
THE KILLER (2023)
It's an artfully executed, engaging, and expensive trifle. It isn't the ubiquitous brand names that do it, necessarily - the rampant brands only call attention to how difficult it is for an op like...
View Article
