On Chris Cunningham

Having explored the careers of so many accomplished filmmakers, here I’ll take a look at one who has not lived up to his full potential.

The Two Davids

David Cronenberg and David Lynch: two visually gifted, unabashedly idiosyncratic filmmakers, both drawn to bizarre and grotesque subject matter

THE WARD

This may seem like just another trashy potboiler of the type you see dozens of each year, and in many respects that’s just what it is

THE BLIND OWL

A signature film by the ever-eccentric Raul Ruiz, who was here adapting Sadegh Hedayat’s Iranian classic THE BLIND OWL

BENEATH

A quirky sea monster splatter fest from director Larry Fessenden that’s not nearly as terrible as its early reception suggests, although it’s still far from Fessenden’s best work

SUMMER OF SAM

From Spike Lee, a wildly overbaked yet vital account of the seventies-era “Son of Sam” killings. The film has much to say about the effects of fear and paranoia, none of it comforting