Director Ti West's feature debut, “The House of the Devil” (2009), was a deftly executed homage to both classic haunted house flicks and the great female-centered horror films of the sixties and seventies (particularly Rosemary's Baby, 1968). Fanatically aware of the conventions of the genre, its titles were ever lovingly rendered in a classic seventies burnt-orange which matched the ... more >
ARCHIVES
The Innkeepers
The search for Madeline O'Malley
Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis
Directed by Ti West
The Divide
Straight out of the gore files
Lauren German, Michael Biehn and Milo Ventimiglia
Directed by Xavier Gens
Anyone who's ever been in a car accident knows about the moment of inevitability: that instant, right before the impact, when you realize that this is actually happening, that the SUV skidding towards you isn't going to stop at the last moment but really is going to plow right into you; and that you can't do a thing about it. A similar feeling inhabits me when I encounter a truly awful film. ... more >
Bob Anderson Dies
Swordmaster will be dearly missed by film community
Bob Anderson, Olympic fencer, stunt man and sword master, died at age 89. During a career that spanned over fifty years and saw the death of the studio system and the advent of the blockbuster, Anderson worked with everyone from Errol Flynn to Sean Connery and Antonio Banderas. He gained the greatest notoriety for his work on the Star Wars trilogy in the seventies, though his role in key ... more >
An evening with John Landis
The Animal House director tells it like it is
Though John Landis’s name may not be as instantly recognizable as those of George Lucas or Martin Scorsese, his contributions to quintessential American cinema are just as popular and venerable as those of his better-known (or perhaps just better-marketed) colleagues. The director of such classics—a very worn-out term that actually applies here—as “Animal House” (1978), “The Blues ... more >
Shame
My life as a sex addict
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan and James Badge Dale
Directed by Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen's second feature reprises his collaboration with Hunger star Michael Fassbender and the effect is no less spellbinding. This time, instead of starving for a cause, Fassbender plays a man at the mercy of his urges rather than in control of them: a sex addict. In the frenetic world of New York City it's easy for Fassbender's Brandon to keep his private life a secret. When a vat of ... more >
Martha Marcy May Marlene
New York Film Festival in focus
Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes
Directed by Sean Durkin
Judging from Martha Marcy May Marlene, one of the most talked-about feature films currently showing at the New York Film festival, relative newcomers writer/director Sean Durkin and actress Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley) were born with the right gene. This new thriller is so tight and poised that it appears to be the work of long-collaborating veterans (it may prove ... more >
Roman Polanski’s Carnage
The New York Film Festival opener
Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly
Directed by Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski's latest effort is an adaptation of French dramatic auteur—and, for a short while, Nicolas Sarkozy confidante--Yasmine Reza's play “God of Carnage.” After being favorably received onstage, both Broadway and the West End mounted productions to mostly positive acclaim. It seems natural, then, that a film version—a ninety-minute set piece in which the characters barely leave ... more >
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