She Blogged By Night

Panic in Year Zero! (1962)

March 29, 2016staciaUncategorized

Because 1962 was still in the grips of the 1950s, Panic in Year Zero touts the benefits of survival through rampant commercialism. Harry, who very sensibly takes about a thousand bucks in cash with him on fishing trips, soon realizes that there’s nothing in L.A. to go back to, and money is all they’ve got to help them survive. He systematically purchases guns, gas and food… or at least tries to, but is thwarted at every turn by raging selfishness, like when a hardware store owner doesn’t want to take his $200 check. Hey, Harry’s just trying to screw the guy over, as is his God-given right. What’s the problem?

Station West (1948)

March 23, 2016March 23, 2016staciaUncategorized1 Reply

While the link between Westerns and noir films is well documented, very few films have been as literal as Station West in borrowing tropes from one genre and superimposing them onto another.

Spies (Spione, 1928)

March 1, 2016March 1, 2016staciaUncategorized

Fritz Lang’s Spies (Spione, 1928) is gorgeous, as all of Lang’s silents are, full of art deco designs and sharp-edged shadows and perfectly posed extras set amongst some truly stunning visual effects, impressive today, but so incredible at the time that they must have been nearly indistinguishable from magic.

Pressure Point (1962)

February 25, 2016February 25, 2016staciaUncategorized1 Reply

Stanley Kramer was one of the few producers who could make earnest social problem films really work; the melodrama in Pressure Point is a feature, not a bug.

Hitch Hike (1977)

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016staciaUncategorized

Hitch Hike (Autostop rosso sangue) (1977) is one of the more original and esoteric of the 1970s exploitation flicks, primarily thanks to the unpredictable relationship that develops between Adam, Eve and Walter.

Serial (1980), Now Out on Blu-Ray and DVD From Olive Films

February 3, 2016staciaUncategorized

It’s the dawn of the 1980s, and the upper-class hippie holdouts of Marin County, California are snarking and screwing their way through life, certain that health foods and open marriages will save their souls while blissfully unaware that they’re emotionally and psychologically adrift.