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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
JOHNNY MNEMONIC
A film that was forecast to be a revolutionary melding of cyberpunk and mainstream sensibilities, but is best viewed nowadays as a dry run for THE MATRIX
A KARATE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
A film whose “qualities” are summed up by its title
A VERY NUTTY CHRISTMAS
One of the weirder Lifetime movies I’ve seen, offering a cockeyed inversion of THE NUTCRACKER and a message that fully lives up to the “nutty” designation: that true holiday cheer is possible only through the intercession of a doll in human form
MERRY CHRISTMAS
A Bollywood Christmas movie with everything you’d expect
STAND BY ME
In remembering the recently deceased Rob Reiner, I’ll be taking the good with the bad. Here’s the good…
PETER IBBETSON
A 19th Century classic (of sorts) that served as a direct forerunner to fantasy narratives ranging from THE STAR ROVER to SOMEWHERE IN TIME
THE MEN IN THE JUNGLE
A nasty ‘Nam allegory by sci fi legend Norman Spinrad
COLD FRONT
A recently republished 1980s horror novel that’s strong, descriptive and thoroughly Canadian
SKIN
The third and most widely praised of Kathe Koja’s grunge-era horror novels, resissued in a snazzy new edition
THE AWAKENING
Imaginative and ambitious vampire fiction by John Russo
THE LEATHER NUN AND OTHER INCREDIBLY STRANGE COMICS
Odd and obscure (though not quite “incredibly strange”) comics
LITTLE GIRL LOST
In the category of memoirs written by fourteen year olds LITTLE GIRL LOST is about average
LEARN TO LOSE YOUR MIND
A parody of the self-help manuals that asserts “It’s smart to be psychotic”
MONSTER MIDWAY
A nonfiction anthology that explores all aspects of early Twentieth Century carnival lore, as observed by the late William Lindsay Gresham
HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC: THE TANGLED WEB OF DRACULA FROM NOVEL TO STAGE TO SCREEN
An ambitious undertaking: an examination of Bram Stoker’s immortal DRACULA and its bumpy road to pop culture immortality
Documenting Terry Gilliam
Two books and four docs about the one and only Terry Gilliam
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST at 35
On the most controversial film of our time
TV Flashback: DARK DREAMERS
I’m not sure how Stanley Wiater managed to convince a Canadian TV channel to broadcast a show comprised entirely of interviews with horror writers and filmmakers, but I’m glad he did
William Friedkin’s Films, Ranked
On August 7, 2023, film director extraordinaire William Friedkin, a.k.a. Hurricane Billy, passed away. Here’s my ranking of his 20 features.
Barbie, Movie Star?
On the Barbie headlined films SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY, BARBIE (1977), COOL KIDS HIGH and DOLLA MORTE.