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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
Regarding TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!, two names come immediately to mind: Pedro Almodovar, who wrote and directed the film, and Harvey Weinstein, who shepherded its May 1990 US release
THE DELEGATION
One of the most ambitious TV movies of the 1970s, a West German-French-Italian coproduction, filmed in French and English, that explored the then-trendy topic of UFOs
THE THING EXPANDED
A five hour-plus documentary on John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982) that can viewed as the definitive resource on that classic film.
FEELS LIKE HOME
A stunningly crafted Hungarian thriller involving abduction, family bonds and power moves
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Here’s a 1990s blockbuster that without question has not dated well
THE WILD
Whitley Strieber once called this his “breakthrough” novel and then decided it wasn’t all that; in truth it falls somewhnere in between those poles
NIGHTSHADE & DAMNATIONS
A grouping of the best stories of the inimitable Gerald Kersh, selected and introduced by the equally inimitable Harlan Ellison
A CRACKUP AT THE RACE RIOTS
A curiously beautiful, one of a kind grotesquerie from the inimitable Harmony Korine
GHOSTBURB PSYCHO
From the land down under, a black-humored exercise in demented misanthropy that recalls FANTAZIUS MALLARE and FIGHT CLUB.
PIRANESI
A surreal fantasy that I found overrated
HOLLYWOOD ANIMAL
This 700-plus page memoir by a Hollywood insider was to the aughts what Julia Phillips’ notorious YOU’LL NEVER EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN (1991) was to the previous decade
WAR IS HELL: MAKING HELLRAISER III HELL ON EARTH
Another book by the irrepressible Danny Stewart, who specializes in boosting underappreciated films
HOW IT HAPPENED HERE
An incredibly entertaining book that offers aspiring filmmakers a potent object lesson in what not to do
THE GREATEST GANGSTER MOVIE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN: ABEL FERRARA’S THE FUNERAL
A passionate exploration of Abel Ferrara’s THE FUNERAL (1996), which is indeed the finest gangster movie you’ve “never seen”
PERFORMANCE—THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC
In which the UK’s Jay Glennie once again works his magic in a gorgeously designed movie making-of book
The Disconcertingly Familiar Horrors of PENPAL
All about what is arguably the most impacting work of fiction to emerge from Reddit.com
Harlan Ellison: The Redemption Arc
About how, in defiance of my expectations, the late Harlan Ellison is becoming a posthumous success story
Remembering That Which Is Better Forgotten: THE REAL CANCUN
An inaugural entry in the reality film genre, which sought to do for feature filmmaking what reality TV did for television
FRANKENSTEIN INVERTED
Eight interesting FRANKENSTEIN films that I say are worth your time
Dan Simmons: 1948-2026
There was no more talented or dependable modern writer than the recently deceased Dan Simmons