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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
THIS IS ME…NOW
In which the 54-year-old Jennifer Lopez, a.k.a. J.Lo, celebrates herself and her new album
FAMINE ’33
A chronicle of the Holodomor, or Artificial Famine, that afflicted Ukraine in 1932-33, engineered by Stalin to (it’s been claimed) crush Ukrainian resistance to Soviet rule
ROLLING THUNDER
One of the finest action films of ithe seventies, offering up naturalistic drama and brutal action in equal doses
CECIL B. DEMENTED
Far from John Waters’ best work, but funny and perceptive enough in its corrosive portrayal of guerilla filmmaking to warrant a qualified recommendation
A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM
A black comedy whose effectiveness pivots on an unexpected but quite canny casting choice: Michael Caine, playing a New York businessman using highly unorthodox practices to get ahead
THE BAT WOMAN
“Prepare for Shlock and Awe”…? That first adjective is accurate, but the second not at all.
SHELTER
A paperback original that can be viewed as the trashy down-market inverse of ON THE BEACH
MAD SHADOWS
A much-lauded novel that offers a potent reminder that a great deal of renowned Canadian fiction tends toward the macabre
RED SPIDER, WHITE WEB
Here we have what is undoubtedly the most widely discussed yet least read book of the cyberpunk cycle
PIG TALES
The cover and description make this novel seem like a light-hearted satire, which it isn’t
KINO DELIRIUM
This is one of the very few books devoted to Maddin and his films, and a must-read volume for fans
A KIM JONG-IL PRODUCTION
Here’s a real-life account that is in fact stranger than fiction: the 1978 kidnapping of the veteran South Korean film director Shin Sang-Ok and his actress ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee by Kim Jong-Il
KILLER INSTINCT
In the category of books about moviemaking this one for me ranks among the top of the heap
THE JAWS 2 LOG
This lively report about the making of JAWS 2 is far from the best book of its type, but it is a fascinating and instructive read
THE JAWS LOG
THE JAWS LOG is not, as the back cover wrongfully claims, the “only book” about the making of JAWS, but it is the best
1990: The year in Bedlam
Here, in the latest installment of my Look Back in Bedlam at the year’s more obscure and underappreciated films, we arrive at 1990
More Topps Trading Card Madness
In sifting through America’s pop culture detritus I’ve found Topps Trading Cards are elements that continually demand one’s attention
Dennis Etchison: 1943-2019
Dennis Etchison, who died on May 28, 2019, may not be particularly well known to the public at large, but he had an exceedingly large and dedicated following, and left a sizeable mark
TV Flashback: LES DOCUMENTS INTERDITS
2019 marked the 20th anniversary of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, but I say it’s time for a look back even further, to that film’s true progenitor: the French TV program LES DOCUMENTS INTERDITS
1991: The Year in Bedlam
1991 wasn’t an especially auspicious year for movies, but it was a formative one for this (once) young cineaste