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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
MYSTERIOUS PLANET
One of the absolute cheapest sci fi films of 1982, a very free adaptation of Jules Verne’s MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
PARASITE (1982)
3-D monster movie silliness from Charles Band
RINGMASTER
The one and only Jerry Springer movie
MR. INDIA
The first and only INVISIBLE MAN inspired science fiction themed musical melodrama
WONKA: THE SCANDAL THAT ROCKED BRITAIN
The definitive documentary account of the Glasgow, Scotland based WILLY’S CHOCOLATE EXPERIENCE fiasco
SPARES
From the UK’s Michael Marshall Smith, a diusturbing sci fi dystopia that was supposed to be adapted for film by Dreamworks, but wasn’t
LYCHEE LIGHT CLUB
A manga one-shot involving perversion and psychosis amid a group of middle schoolers. It’s much better than you might expect.
LOST SOULS
A happy birthday to the horror icon Poppy Z. Brite, whose debut novel this was
SEXUALIS ’95
A very accurate (not!) portrayal of the year 1995 was offered up in this novel, one of two available English translations by Belgium’s Jacques Sternberg
THE COMMITTED MEN
The apocalypse-themed first novel by England’s enormously gifted M. John Harrison, who in more recent years has all-but disowned it
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT
Anyone doubting that the early 1990s were a golden age for cinema need only view DAZED AND CONFUSED, or read this oral history
BAD BOY BUBBY
Here’s something I say we all definitely need: a book about Rolf de Heer’s 1993 cinemutation BAD BOY BUBBY
JOHN FRANKENHEIMER: A CONVERSATION WITH CHARLES CHAMPLIN
A lively film-related biography structured entirely as a long conversation
MADE MEN
You simply cannot go wrong with this book, which explores Martin Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS
GEOFF MURPHY: A LIFE ON FILM
An engaging memoir, and certainly one of most interesting and underrated film books of the 2010s
On CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (2022) and The Tyranny of Exposition
In June 2022 CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, the first feature in eight years to be directed by David Cronenberg—and the first in 21 years to emerge from an original Cronenberg screenplay—was released
Thoughts on the Cannes Film Festival (From One who’s Never Been There)
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival has just concluded, and based on what I’ve read it seems to have been largely uneventful
Herman Melville, Leos Carax and the Ambiguities
On Herman Melville’s wildest novel and Leos Carax’s equally outre film adaptation
Fred Ward: 1942-2022
I greatly respect Fred Ward as an actor, but ultimately I like him because, simply, he graced quite a few of my favorite movies
On THE SWIMMER
“DEATH OF A SALESMAN in swimming trunks” is how Burt Lancaster described his 1968 starring vehicle THE SWIMMER