BISIKAN ARWAH
Indonesian horror with a monster tongue, horrific transformations, bug eating, Kung Fu fighting and lots of excess insanity
FICTIONAL SELVES
A good memoir by a good guy who happens to have been one of David Lynch’s most important collaborators
ROBOCOP
Quite possibly the apotheosis of the 1980s action movie boom, and a major entry in the decade’s cyberpunk triumvirate (begun with BLADE RUNNER and THE TERMINATOR)
Jeremy Thomas: 1949-2026
There was nobody else quite like producer Jeremy Thomas, and there will assuredly never be another.
TWO OF A KIND
A could-have-been-good attempt at reviving the heavenly comedy mold of old, with John Tavolta and Olivia Newton-John
MODERN PROBLEMS
A creepy and off-putting 1981 “comedy” that’s most interesting for the fact that the narrative, about a deeply unhappy man descending into a vortex of sex, drugs and miscellaneous bad behavior, closely mirrored the offscreen existence of its star Chevy Chase
ADVENTURES OF ALI BABA AND THE 40 THIEVES
A highly ambitious and very of-its-time Indo-Soviet co-production from 1980
DARK DREAMS: AN OBSESSIVE LOOK AT ROMANO SCAVOLINI’S NIGHTMARE
A book that is indeed quite obsessive in its probe of this 1981 anti-classic
BETTY BLUE
A sprightly account of a tragic love affair that was made into an enormously popular 1986 film. The book’s better.
POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN
This profoundly bizarre 12 minute short was made back in 1983, yet has become quite popular online (with good reason!)