Tremors first published by Little White Lies, as entry 157 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column Ron Underwood’s Tremors opens with Valentine McKee (Kevin Bacon) standing on the edge of a rocky cliff, and urinating onto the ground far below. He is first shown from the front in an extra wide shot too distant to allow…
Godmonster of Indian Flats first published by Little White Lies, as entry 152 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column Right from its title, there is something weird going on in Fredric Hobbs’ Godmonster of Indian Flats. It is that word, godmonster. If it were just god, or just monster, the title might be more readily digestible…
Johnny Guitar first published by Little White Lies, as entry 136 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column A stranger wanders into a divided community. This is the plot of George Stevens’ iconic oater Shane (1953), as its eponymous gunfighter drifts into a local dispute and sides with the wholesome, homespun underdogs, before moving on, injured, into…
The Proposition first published by EyeforFilm, 10 Mar 2006 John Hillcoat‘s brutal 1988 directorial debut,Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead, co-starring Goth/blues/ punk genius Nick Cave (who also shared credits for the screenplay and score) was then, and still remains, the grittiest, most hard-hitting prison film ever made. So expectations were raised very high when it…
Ghosts of the Ozarks has its international première at Grimmfest Easter Edition 2022 In 1866, America was a scarred country which, having just emerged from the violent divisions of Civil War, was in need of healing. As a young physician who had served the Union as a field surgeon, African-American James McCune (Thomas Hobson) might…
First Cow first published by Movies On Weekends “It’s the getting started that’s the puzzle,” says King-Lu (Orion Lee) in Kelly Reichardt‘s First Cow. “No way for a poor man to start. You need capital. Or you need some kind of miracle… Or a crime.” It is the early nineteenth century, not that far removed…
True Grit first published by EyeforFilm There is a strange sequence in the middle of Ethan and Joel Coen’s latest film, True Grit. Headstrong 14-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) and her hired lawman Deputy Marshall Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn’ (Jeff Bridges) are riding through the Choctaw Nation in search of Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man…
Why Don’t You Just Die! (Papa, Sdokhni) was written for S&S, although I don’t think it was ever published. Review: Papa, Sdokhni, the original Russian title of Why Don’t You Just Die!, translates roughly as “Daddy, die” – and it will come as little surprise that Russian writer/director Kirill Sokolov‘s rambunctious feature debut is a full-blown assault on the…
Rango first published by Film4 Summary: Gore Verbinski’s first fully animated feature is a fish-out-of-water pastiche of the spaghetti western – and twenty-first century living. Review: “Who am I?”, wonders a pet chameleon, surveying the world rushing past his glass case as he is transported along a Nevada freeway. “I could be anyone.” This lizard with…
Sometimes, to understand the great American horror story, you need to go back to the source. Aaron B. Koontz’s The Pale Door begins with a quote from Edgar Allen Poe (which supplies the origin of the film’s title), and with that most familiar of the genre’s formative primal scenes: a little boy in bed, frightened…
A prospect is a possible future to which one is looking forward. There is not much likelihood of that for teenaged Cee (Sophie Thatcher, excellent) and her father Damon (Jay Duplass), ‘floaters’ hopping from one planet to another on a wing and a prayer. They are running on empty: trying to pay off an impossible…