The Blue Rose had its European première on Sun 27th Aug at FrightFest A woman (Jordyn Denning) in a black lace basque and a blue neck ruff steps onto a small yellow-lit stage, and kneels on the floor at its centre. With a bright blue painting behind her depicting a blue flower and a blue…
INLAND EMPIRE first published by Film4, in 2006 Summary: Laura Dern gives several star turns in David Lynch’s latest brain-bending exploration of identity and the Hollywood dream machine.. Review: Before he began the five-year shoot for his feature debut Eraserhead (1977), David Lynch famously invited his small cast and crew to a screening of Billy Wilder’s SUNSET…
Something in the Dirt first published by Little White Lies, 23 Jan 2022 In Something In The Dirt, fifth feature of filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, The Endless, Synchronic), we hear wind chimes before we see anything. These chimes hang outside a somewhat dingy apartment building in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon, where feckless bartender Levi Danube (Benson) has just moved…
Gasoline Alley opens in a Los Angeles bar, where Jimmy Jayne (an excellent, lived-in turn from Devon Sawa), drinking alone in the wee hours, is approached by a pretty woman, Star (Irina Antonenko). “I just sensed you were a man running from shadows,” she says to him, as though he were a grizzled noir antihero and…
Time ticks inexorably for forty-something Russell (AJ Bowen). He was once married, but is now divorced. Years ago he developed an app that became a huge financial success, but he made the mistake of allowing himself to be bought out before it went public, missing out on the big profit. He now uses the car…
Madness in the Method first published by SciFiNow Jason Mewes has a problem: known almost exclusively for playing Jay to Kevin Smith’s Silent Bob in Clerks (1994) and other Smith films, he has been doomed as an actor always to play the stoner sidekick, never the star. In his directorial debut Madness In The Method…
Under The Silver Lake first published (in slightly shorter form) by VODzilla.co There is a whole subgenre of films set in Los Angeles – including Billy Wilder’s Sunset Blvd. (1950), Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential (1997), Tony Scott’s Domino (2005), Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006), Allen Coulter’s Hollywoodland (2006), Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice (2014), and…
Bliss introduces us to the crumbling world and fragmenting headspace of Dezzy Donohue (Dora Madison). A Californian artist who has run out of creative juice, Dezzy has twice asked for extensions on her latest commission, and is getting nowhere with it. David (Chris McKenna), her agent of long standing, can see the writing (if not…
The Mexican myth of La Llorona, or the ‘Weeping Woman’, is a story told to children to deter them from staying out alone at night. When her husband strayed, in an act of Medea-like vengeance she drowned their two children, and then herself – and now she comes for other children, her presence announced by…
Review first published in S&S Dec 2012 Synopsis: South Central, Los Angeles. Cleared of homicide charges after a shootout, LAPD Officers Taylor and Zavala return to duty, with Taylor recording both their professional and personal lives on digicam. In a dispute between African-American gangbanger Tre and his mailman, Zavala earns Tre’s respect by keeping a…