“[David Cronenberg] has been, film for film, the most audacious and challenging director in the English-speaking world.” – J. Hoberman Murder ballads Toronto, Canada’s most incendiary favorite son, director David Cronenberg’s name is synonymous with a cinematic subgenre he essentially created––”body horror.” And certainly his deft psychological thriller from 2005, A History of Violence, […]
Author: Shane Scott-Travis
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10 Movies You Should See If You Liked “Green Room”
“The crowd there leans a little right,” warns Tad (David W. Thompson), a sketchy Portland promoter, to Pat (Anton Yelchin) and his noisy punk band, The Ain’t Rights. Normally they’d never take such a shady gig but they’re on the ass end of a tour that’s put them in the hole and so they reluctantly […]
Pulling Focus: Brazil (1985)
“[Brazil] is a film that bears watching again and again and again. It’s so packed with detail, it’s funny and so political. It’s just a perfect film I think.” – Ben Wheatley, director (Kill List, Free Fire) Somewhere in the twentieth century For American-born British filmmaker, animator, and comedian Terry Gilliam, the 1985 dystopian […]
Pulling Focus: Deep Red (1975)
“In my book, Argento and Hitchcock master the threat of architecture and urban landscape like none other.” – Guillermo del Toro There will be blood The 1975 nightmare from giallo progenitor Dario Argento, Deep Red (Profondo Rosso in Italian, also released as The Hatchet Murders) is a high water mark for horror as well […]
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7 Reasons Why “Naked” is a Masterpiece of British Cinema
Austere and uncompromising, Mike Leigh’s tragicomic film from 1993, Naked, is arguably his level best and certainly the bleakest British masterpiece of the 1990s. A controversial and compelling compass of urban society, this staggering arthouse triumph––it won best director and best actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival––is a showcase of several talents and […]
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20 Offbeat Musical Movies For People Who Don’t Like Musicals
I’m not sure that there is as enjoyable a film genre as the musical, and it’s one that is often derided more than any other, except maybe for horror films. Even when a joyful and technically dazzling pastiche picture like La La Land appears there’s an almost instant backlash from cynical types determined not to […]