Dutch Public TV spoof on Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance – by Klikbeet
Welcome! Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. Punk heart still beating. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda…
Video Essay
NOUVELLE VAGUE — “JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH”
Welcome! Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
WILD AT HEART — CANNES 1990
Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Rock 'n' Roll, sex, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay
“Wild At Heart” is a remarkable film by any standard. What fun. Cole Smithey.
THE TROUT
Welcome! Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
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…
GASLIGHT — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Black and White, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Hollywood, Psychological Thriller, Remake, Reviews Blog, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
George Cukor’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play is a cinematic feast of noir suspense. 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…
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…
LA CEREMONIE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, LGBTQ, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Suspense, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Chabrol’s dream-team cast comes together in a once-in-a-lifetime event. I could wax poetic about Jean-Pierre Cassel, who delivers such a…
DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK — SHOCKTOBER!
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” is a nuanced horror movie modulated to incur just the right quality of nightmare.…
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…
BURKE & HARE — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, British Gangster, Capsules Blog, Horror, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, THREE STARS, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
John Landis’s loving homage to the Vaudeville and Grand Guignol-based humor of Britain’s Ealing Studios is a retrofitted black comedy…
STRANGE DAYS — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Neo-Noir, Political Satire, Sci-Fi, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
One of the most ambitious examples of the dystopian genre, Kathryn Bigelow’s “Strange Days” (1995) is a forward-looking predictor of…
HIGH ANXIETY — SHOCKTOBER!
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Comedy, FIVE STARS, SHOCKTOBER!, Spoof, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Dedicated to “the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock,” “Mel Brooks’s “High Anxiety” (1977) arrived as a polished comedy behind Brooks’s…
KILLER JOE — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Neo-Noir, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
William Friedkin has made the most triumphantly dark, funny, and sexy black comedy you could ever imagine. Cole Smithey.
HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Japanese Cinema, Martial Arts, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay
Takashi Miike maintains his reputation as a prolific international filmmaker of considerable talent. A 52-year-old director with 88 films to…
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Crime Drama, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Gothic, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Noir, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Charles Laughton, a consummate British actor of stage and film, directed only one film during his lifetime, but he made…
FRANKENWEENIE — SHOCKTOBER!
Animation, Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Children's Cinema, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Looking back at Burton’s flawed 1984 version of “Frankenweenie” is informative for the many layers of corrective narrative tissue the…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
