When I first arrived in Winnipeg back in 1973, I took a room in a boarding house in the Wolseley area, within walking distance of downtown. I quickly formed a mental map of the city which was anchored by two elements: bookstores and movie theatres. Although I’ve since had many addresses in Winnipeg and other […]
While watching Charles B. Griffith’s Eat My Dust! the other day, I found myself getting annoyed. Not by the sheer silliness of the film — a small-town sheriff’s son (a very young Ron Howard) steals a hot-rod to impress a girl and ends up in a cross-country chase which is merely an excuse for endless […]
The recent guest post here about William K. Everson by my friend Howard Curle reminded me that I have a copy of Everson’s Classics of the Horror Film (Citadel Press: Secaucus, N.J., 1974), which I hadn’t looked at … well, probably in a couple of decades. Dipping into it and re-reading some of the chapters, […]
When my friend Howard Curle offered to write a guest post for my blog, I was happy to accept. Howard has taught film here in Winnipeg for many years, initially at the University of Manitoba and now at the University of Winnipeg, and we occasionally get together to watch and discuss movies from my collection […]
An exchange between critics and readers in the NYTimes prompts some thoughts about the nature of boredom and why so many people get defensive about “art films”.
Back in the dark days before DVD, when elitists spent large sums on laserdisks because the quality was so superior to the ubiquitous VHS tapes of home video, the commentary track was born. This was a terrific innovation, enhancing the value of a movie by providing context and opinions from the actual filmmakers or from […]
While looking for information about a couple of movies, I recently came across two websites I hadn’t previously been aware of, both of which are packed with interesting material. Midnight Eye, co-edited by Tom Mes, ubiquitous expert on all things cinematically Japanese, is a great-looking site devoted to Japanese film. It’s got a rich selection […]
I stopped off on my way home from work the other day to catch a screening of Fast Five. It was a Tuesday, so the ticket was half price. I guess I’d have to say I got my money’s worth. I’d only previously seen the fourth movie in the series, Fast & Furious (also directed […]
British TV has always been primarily a writer’s medium; since the ’50s, the biggest stars have tended to be the writers, with writers’ names attached possessively to projects. Television production was often built around writers such as Alan Bennett, Alan Bleasdale and Dennis Potter, who was one of the biggest, with each of his new […]
John Carpenter has had a long, uneven career, the chief foundation of which (after a couple of very good small features, Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13) was the highly successful and influential Halloween. Personally, I’ve never understood that movie’s reputation and success. Apart from his facility with the widescreen frame and a strong […]