CLAMPDOWN — THE CLASH
CLAMPDOWN — THE CLASH
Corporate Corruption
BEYOND THE GAZE: JULE CAMPBELL’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE
Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Documentary, Photography, sex, Sexploitation, THREE STARS, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
Welcome! Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. Punk heart still beating. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda…
ANORA — CANNES 2024
Agitprop, BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Crime Drama, Erotic, FIVE STARS, Independent Cinema, LGBTQ, Romantic Comedy, Screwball Comedy, sex, Sexploitation, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Women's Cinema
“Anora” is a winner, and an instant classic of American Independent Cinema. Cole Smithey.
JULIAN ASSANGE — “I CHOSE FREEDOM OVER JUSTICE”
America, Articles Blog, Corporate Corruption, Corporate Culture, Culture, Current Affairs, Editorial, Media, Politics, U.S. Law, War, Web/Tech, Women Filmmakers
JULIAN ASSANGE — “I CHOSE FREEDOM OVER JUSTICE”
IN PRAISE OF LOVE — CANNES 2001
Art Film, Avant-Garde, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, Experimental, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, French New Wave, Hollywood, Independent Cinema, Transgressive Cinema, War, Women's Cinema
Welcome! Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
LADY BIRD
Agitprop, Biopic, Capsules Blog, Coming-of-Age, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, Current Affairs, Feminist Cinema, LGBTQ, Politics, sex, Social Satire, Women's Cinema, ZERO STARS
Lady Bird is a KAREN. The fact is indisputable and undeniable. Racist, homophobic, lazy, petty, selfish, sociopathic, disloyal, and dishonest,…
THE MACHINIST — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema
“The Machinist” is a well-crafted psychological thriller about self-deception and tragedy, told against an eerie landscape of terrifying dislocation and…
SHAKEDOWN: WHY BRAZILIAN POLICE AND CORPORATE MEDIA SHOOK DOWN AND DEFAMED OLYMPIC SWIMMERS
SHAKEDOWN: WHY BRAZILIAN POLICE AND ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA SHOOK DOWN AND DEFAMED OLYMPIC SWIMMERS. Cole Smithey.
BRATS
Classic Cinema, Coming-of-Age, Corporate Corruption, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, Documentary, FIVE STARS, Hollywood, Media, Reviews Blog, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Drama, sex, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Andrew McCarthy crafts an exquisitely satisfying base-touching expedition with his Gen X comrades, whose careers suffered as a result of…
WORKING GIRLS — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Agitprop, BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Corporate Corruption, Criterion Collection, Current Affairs, Erotic, Feminist Cinema, FIVE STARS, Independent Cinema, Lesbian Cinema, LGBTQ, Neo-Realism, Political Satire, Politics, Porn, Punk, Queer Cinema, sex, Sexploitation, Social Realism, Transgressive Cinema, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
Lizzie Borden’s third film, behind “Regrouping” (1979) and “Born In Flames” (1983), is a perfect chamber-piece of neo-realist social satire.…
Oscar Nominees 2024: Full List
Oscar Nominees 2024: Full List. Cole Smithey.
BARBIE
Agitprop, BDSM, Children's Cinema, Coming-of-Age, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, Dance, Exploitation, Fantasy, Hollywood, Musical, Propaganda, Reviews Blog, sex, Sexploitation, War, ZERO STARS
Preachy, insipid, wrongheaded, and mean-spirited, “Barbie” is by far the worst movie (or more accurately, commercial) I have ever witnessed.…
STARSHIP TROOPERS — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, Sci-Fi, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, War, War Fantasy, Women's Cinema
“Starship Troopers” is a canny war satire that outshines even Kubrick’s great satire “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to…
SEVERENCE — SHOCKTOBER!
British Cinema, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, THREE STARS
“Severance” is just enough of an exploitation satire (think, Roger Corman in his heyday) to hold your interest beyond its…
THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER — SHOCKTOBER!
Agitprop, BDSM, Black Comedy, British Cinema, British Gangster, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
“The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover” is a masterpiece of British cinema built on several hundred years…
AMERICAN PSYCHO — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Literary Adaptation, Neo-Noir, Politics, Porn, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema
Co-screenwriter/director Harron composes the film with Hitchcock-inspired compositions to charge the script’s paper-dry wit with a palpable combination of pulsing…
SAM PECKINPAH’S BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA — SHOCKTOBER!
American Independent Cinema, Capsules Blog, Corporate Corruption, FIVE STARS, Horror, Neo Western, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Women's Cinema
Fermented in a conflicted state of tragic romanticism, which is placed firmly in a no-man’s land between liberation and capitalism,…
FILM CRITICISM IS…
Film criticism exists to analyze its subject as a work of art, not commerce. All film is political; it is…
WEWORK: OR THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF A $47 BILLION UNICORN
Repetitive and redundant to a fault, this overlong doc still manages to put a even a dull point on Adam…
HOUSE OF GUCCI
Wow! Here is the Hollywood knock out movie we’ve been waiting for. Sure it could stand to lose 10 or…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
