MAESTRO
Academy Awards, Biopic, Black and White, Capsules Blog, LGBTQ, Music, Musical, ONE STAR, sex, Women's Cinema
Here is a film that needed a serious rewrite, much tighter editing, and direction by a filmmaker other than Bradley…
Capsules Blog
AMERICAN BOY: A PROFILE OF STEVEN PRINCE
“America Boy” is also a great chance to get a peek into Martin Scorsese’s intimate directing style. I love this…
SAM NOW
American Independent, Capsules Blog, Coming-of-Age, Documentary, FIVE STARS, sex, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
It may be a bitter pill, but this brilliant movie conveys things that only documentary Cinema can capture and express.…
RUSTIN
Academy Awards, African American Cinema, Agitprop, Biopic, Capsules Blog, FIVE STARS, LGBTQ, Politics, sex, True Crime, War
Welcome! Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
NIGHT GAMES — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, LGBTQ, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Swedish Cinema, Transgressive Cinema, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
“Night Games” retains its ability to shock viewers after over 50 years due to Mai Zetterling’s intuitive ability to dig…
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS — SHOCKTOBER!
John Carpenter’s 1994 finale to his Apocalypse Trilogy is a no-holds-barred blitzkrieg of horror that will have you watching the…
HOUSE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, Dystopia, FIVE STARS, Horror, Japanese Cinema, Political Psychological Drama, Political Satire, Punk, Rock 'n' Roll, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Surrealism, Transgressive Cinema, War, War Fantasy, Women's Cinema
Visually and viscerally stunning from start to finish, “House” is much more than a mere masterpiece. Cole Smithey.
BLUE VELVET — SHOCKTOBER!
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Gothic, Neo-Noir, Surrealism, Video Essay
In 1986 David Lynch broke the language of cinema wide open in the same way that Jackson Pollock did with…
ENTER THE VOID — SHOCKTOBER!
Argentinean Cinema, Capsules Blog, Dystopia, FOUR STARS, Horror, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema
“Enter the Void” is such a virtuosic, if orgiastic, piece of experimental exploitation cinema that the audience is simultaneously repulsed…
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Ed Gein’s legacy of a body-flaying serial killer, which also provided Hitchcock’s “Psycho” with its inspiration, gave novelist Thomas Harris…
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, New German Cinema, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Werner Herzog’s inspired homage to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film is an appropriately chilling telling of the Gothic tale derived…
GRINDHOUSE — SHOCKTOBER!
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Grindhouse, Horror, LGBTQ, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
The palpable cinematic elation and hip vibe that wafts from the screen is more than contagious; it’s stupefying. In their…
HARD CANDY — SHOCKTOBER!
BDSM, Capsules Blog, FOUR STARS, Psychological Thriller, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Women's Cinema
Strikingly filmed and exquisitely performed by its principally two-person cast (Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson), “Hard Candy” is an intense reversal…
RESERVOIR DOGS — SHOCKTOBER!
American Independent Cinema, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Crime Drama, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Heist Movie, SHOCKTOBER!
In 1992 Quentin Tarantino did something that hadn’t been done since 1986 with David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet;” he reinvented cinema.…
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Serial Killer, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Suspense, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
The naturalistic black-and-white noir compositions that writer/director Leonard Kastle captures in the only film of his career, are augmented by…
GHOST SHIP — SHOCKTOBER!
While Ghost Ship may not provide much more than a series of cursory scary moments over its 88-minute length, the movie’s over-the-top…
FIRST REFORMED — SHOCKTOBER!
Agitprop, BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Magical Realism, Political Thriller, Politics, Psychological Thriller, Religion, Romantic Fantasy, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
As Thomas Wolf pointed out in his essay, Christ’s primary teaching was that “loneliness could be destroyed forever by the…
THE NINTH GATE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Cult Film, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Religion, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, THREE STARS, Women's Cinema
Pauline Kael said that “great movies are rarely perfect movies,” and this truism certainly applies to The Ninth Gate. Actress…
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FEET STREET — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FOUR STARS, Horror, Musical, Play Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Women's Cinema
Director Tim Burton’s screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 Grand Guignol musical is at once mesmerizing and disappointing. Outstanding singing…
FIGHT CLUB — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Dystopia, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Neo-Noir, Podcast, Political Satire, Religion, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema
Misogynist, anti-capitalist, and class-conscious, novelist Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” takes a “Trainspotting” brand of glee in dismissing lifestyle mores and…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
