Chip Gutchell feels dead inside. An office IT drone who goes through the motions with his wife, he seems sapped of joy until one day at a scheduled prostate exam, he discovers he likes things stuck up his butt. He starts out innocently enough, inserting small objects, but when larger, breathing things go missing in... Continue Reading →
We all have gaps in our moviegoing experiences. I’ve never seen It Happened One Night and only very recently did I watch It’s A Wonderful Life. In February, Janus Films released a 2K restoration of Come And See, a Soviet-era film from 1985 which depicts the horrors of World War II from a child’s perspective,... Continue Reading →
A couple of years ago, I went with a group to see Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Despite the thuddingly bad writing, we’d giddily wonder what ABBA song the filmmakers would shoehorn into the next musical number. I remember my pal Dennis seeing those platform soles stepping out of a helicopter and loudly exclaiming,... Continue Reading →
A classic satire comes along every so often to remind me, more than other film genres, that great art can come with a sucker punch to the frontal lobes. Movies such as Network, Nightcrawler, Heathers, and The Lobster remind us that when humans go bad, it’s tragic yet devastatingly entertaining. In 1999, Alexander Payne brought... Continue Reading →
What an exciting time we had in the 90s when it came to the emergence of what was called “The New Queer Cinema”. Films such as Todd Haynes’ Poison, Gregg Araki’s The Living End, Ana Kokkinos’ Head On, or the late great and dearly missed Richard Glatzer’s debut with Grief, to name a few, had... Continue Reading →
As much as I liked Eliza Hittman’s last film, Beach Rats, I wrote at the time that despite having style to burn, I wasn’t convinced she had anything new to say. It came across as a Larry Clark/Terrence Malick/Andrea Arnold summit meeting. With her new film, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, she has truly found her... Continue Reading →
The beautiful thing about pop culture is that everyone has their opinions and everyone is right. I think Forrest Gump is the worst Best Picture Oscar winner of all time, whereas you may love its celebration of lowered standards! See? We’re both right! I say this to prepare you for my review of 15 Years,... Continue Reading →
By now, most people know that what gets presented on social media may often differ greatly from the harsh reality. We pose for multiple selfies until we get “the one”. We fill our feeds with fabulous vacations, scrumptious meals, breathtaking hikes, wondrous nights at the theatre, and more. Occasionally, someone may overshare about their misery... Continue Reading →
Most dramatic stories follow a three-act structure, starting with an inciting incident, then a period of rising action, and ending in a climax/resolution. Of course, we’ve seen many filmmakers break that mold, with Pulp Fiction and Last Year At Marienbad coming instantly to mind. Writer/director Anthony Meindl, best known as the founder of his international... Continue Reading →
Since 1977 San Francisco's Frameline Film Festival has presented LGBTQ+ cinema to a ravenous audience each year. Ravenous? Yes, I meant it. The huge crowds packed into such iconic venues as the palatial Castro Theatre love cinema so much, they'll loudly cheer on what speaks to them. Conversely, you haven't lived until 1400 people hiss... Continue Reading →
