The scene is set at a gypsy camp in the 1940s, as Zharko Stepanowicz (Sterling Hayden in one of his late-career mandatory beard roles), self-proclaimed King of the Gypsies, demands to be given young Rose (Tiffany Bogart), as he’s already paid $4,000 for her so she can marry his son Groffo (Mark Vahanian). Rose’s parents…
The Outrageous Sophie Tucker ★★★✫✫ Director: William Gazecki Menemsha Films (Official Site) 96 Minutes Release: July 24, 2015 (limited) – Sophie Tucker was fabulous, flashy and a born entertainer. A true rags-to-riches story, she started out in Vaudeville in the early 1900s; by the early 1920s, the extraordinary Tucker was a major singing star. Known…
Burned-out police detective Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) gets reluctantly called in to investigate the murder of high-profile millionaire Christopher van der Veer (Max M. Brown) in Wolfen, the 1981 sociopolitical horror film directed by Michael Wadleigh. Van der Veer, his wife Pauline (Anne Marie Pohtamo), and their driver Harrison (Jeffery V. Thompson) were found sliced…
Creep ★★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Patrick Brice The Orchard 80 Minutes Release: June 23, 2015 on iTunes / July 14, 2015 on Netflix – On his way to a thousand-dollar-a-day gig, young filmmaker Aaron (Patrick Brice) turns his camera on himself, perhaps out of excitement for the job, or maybe a little nervousness. His destination…
Ralph Nelson’s jazzy, hard-boiled noir Once a Thief stars Alain Delon as Italian (!) immigrant Eddie Pedak with a criminal past who’s just trying to go straight, but his gangster brother Walter (Jack Palance) keeps dragging him back into the fold. Opening with the cold-blooded killing of grocery store owner Lisa Wing (an uncredited actress),…
Tangerine ★★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Sean Baker Magnolia Pictures (Official Site) 88 Minutes Release: July 10, 2015 (limited) – It’s Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), fresh off a 30-day stint in the slammer, catches up on the local gossip with her good friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor). Unfortunately, Alexandra lets slip…
Carey Jackson (Robert Montgomery), foreign correspondent for a huge magazine conglomo, has found himself in his employer Carlton Towne’s leather-lined office (“Must be like living in a wallet”), about to be fired. The company is closing their Vienna office because of post-war censorship, but there’s no work for him back home, either. At the last…
After years languishing in greymarket DVDs, the 1980s private detective series Spenser: For Hire finally got an official release from Warner Archive in 2014. Just a few weeks ago, Warner released Spenser: For Hire: The Complete Second Season on DVD, with the third season surely arriving soon. Featuring Robert Urich as the titular detective, Spenser:…
Yes, I’m still on a mission to watch all 1000 of the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? best films list, and no, I’m not doing very well. Recently watched from the TSPDT1K list: 26. 400 BLOWS, THE (François Truffaut / 1959) 27. MIRROR (Andrei Tarkovsky / 1974) 39. GRANDE ILLUSION, LA (Jean Renoir / 1937)…
The Babushkas of Chernobyl ★★★★✫ Directors: Anne Bogart and Holly Morris Official Site 71 Minutes Premieres at the Los Angeles Film Festival, June 10 through 18, 2015 – With beautiful, classically framed scenery that highlights the healthy appearance of a land that is in reality riddled with invisible dangers, The Babushkas of Chernobyl takes us…