The Curious Case of Jonathan Demme
The untimely demise of film director Jonathan Demme on April 26, 2017 has inspired a number of obituaries. All, unsurprisingly, have been downright orgasmic about his accomplishments.
BORN OF FIRE
A British made exercise in Eastern-flavored weirdness that’s not a bad movie, but it could definitely have used a more adventurous treatment.
DIRECTOR’S CUT
This isn’t the greatest movie director memoir I’ve ever read, but it is a vital one
Bill Paxton: 1955-2017
This morning, on February 26, 2017, it was announced that the great Bill Paxton had died
TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN
Here we have a true American oddity with a history as nutty as what ended up on screen.
YEELEN
The alleged masterpiece of Souleymane Cisse, 1987’s YEELEN (BRIGHTNESS) has been called the “greatest African film ever made.”
THE LOST BOYS
Surprisingly, this novel isn’t all that bad–even if it contains the expected hasty prose and wobbly storytelling I’ve come to expect from movie novelizations–being quite slick and enjoyable overall.
HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH
The nuttiest of the HALLOWEEN sequels, a Michael Myers-less something-or-other involving computers, Stonehenge, androids and deadly masks.
CUJO
CUJO carries Stephen King’s well-known penchant for bloat to hellacious extremes. It includes just about every extraneous detail you can think of.
THE SHADOWED MIND
An insane asylum set South African horror-sexploitation oddity from 1988 that was heavily informed by FAREWELL JOHNNY, the granddaddy of South African horror/cult films. Taken on its own terms THE SHADOWED MIND is agreeably bizarre, though not nearly as deep as it purports to be.