Capsules Blog

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Roman Polanski’s cinematic riposte to the heartbreak he suffered in 1969, when his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered…

THE VANISHING — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

The romantic connection between Rex and Saskia enables the film to achieve its catharsis, through an entropy of both choice…

MONSIEUR VERDOUX — SHOCKTOBER!

Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Serial Killer, SHOCKTOBER!, Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Charlie Chaplin bought and adapted the story idea for his 1947 black comedy from Orson Welles, who wanted to cast…

ROOM 237 — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Documentary, FOUR STARS, Horror, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!,

October 11, 2023

Rodney Ascher’s engrossing documentary exposé regarding a multitude of hidden messages and meanings in Stanley Kubrick’s legendary horror movie “The…

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE — SHOCKTOBER!

Banned Films, British Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!,

October 11, 2023

There’s Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” and then there’s everything else. Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s complex literary satire…

DON’T LOOK NOW — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

It’s a wonder that Alfred Hitchcock didn’t lay claim to Daphne du Maurier’s short-story “Don’t Look Now.” Cole Smithey.

THE DEVILS — SHOCKTOBER!

BDSM, Capsules Blog, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, LGBTQ, Religion, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 11, 2023

Few audiences have seen Ken Russell’s highly stylized depiction of the 17th-century destruction of the autonomous fortressed city of Loudun…

MS. 45 — SHOCKTOBER!

Capsules Blog, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, , Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Welcome! Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…

DIABOLIQUE — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Suspense, Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Henri-Georges Clouzot was termed “the French Hitchcock” for good reason. Cole Smithey.

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS — SHOCKTOBER!

BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Grindhouse, Independent Cinema, LGBTQ, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Don Edmonds’s 1975 classic “Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS” is one of the most outrageous additions to the sexploitation…

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? — SHOCKTOBER!

Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Hollywood, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, , Women's Cinema

October 10, 2023

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford own their diabolically self-destructive roles with virtuosic authority. The self-referential undertow of their career identities…