VENGEANCE IS MINE (1979)
This much acclaimed, multi award-winning Japanese drama from 1979 can be viewed as the HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER of the seventies. It’s also, in my eyes at least, one of the most overrated films of all time
BLACK MOON
A dark, freaky headscratcher from a filmmaker beloved by art snobs the world over: the French Louis Malle, best known for refined fare like ATLANTIC CITY and MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
BIRTH
In the crowded arena of bad Nicole Kidman movies, this outrageously pretentious muddle deserves a special place of honor
BAD GUY
It’s a rare film that contains something to offend absolutely everybody, but BAD GUY manages it. It’s an unlikely love story many will claim—and have claimed—is misogynistic, and they’re probably right
EPIDEMIC
Denmark’s Lars Von Trier has made some wonderful films in the horror genre (THE KINGDOM, ANTICHRIST), but EPIDEMIC, his first such effort, is not among them
ENTER THE VOID
This highly immersive film, the most ambitious and provocative to date by filmmaker Gaspar Noe, proves that truly bold, risk-taking, precedent-setting cinema is still possible
EL AMOR BRUJO
Flamenco dancing takes center stage in this musical extravaganza from Spain’s Carlos Saura. All told it’s an impressively stylized work that interweaves authentic Gypsy folklore with song, dance and a fairly potent ghost story
SZAMANKA
SZAMANKA is frenzied, subversive and cinematically invigorating, at once a provocative art film and a lurid thriller
SWIMMING POOL
One of the signature films of France’s Francois Ozon, who’s turned in a sexy and absorbing psychological chiller
SUTURE
An interesting but overly affected psycho thriller from the nineties. SUTURE has a definite charm, though it’s all-but buried under a veritable avalanche of arty pretension