The White Shadow (1923), The New 52, and Women Comic Book Readers Day

Last night was the U.S. debut of a lost, found, restored, yet incomplete print of one of Alfred Hitchcock's first credited (not directed) features, The White Shadow (1923).  Initially a six-reeler, three reels of the film were recently found in New Zealand and sent to the United States for restoration.  The film, directed by early collaborator Graham Cutts, was adapted by twenty-four year old Hitchcock from a novel by Michael Morton (no relation) and featured Hitchcock in several other significant roles including assistant director, editor, art director, set director, production designer.  It featured Betty Compson in a dual role as a set of twins - one socially "evil" (she drinks, smokes, and gambles!) and one her complete opposite - who fall in love with Clive Brook's American. 

Drive (2011)

In Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011), mobster Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) tells his newly hired stunt and getaway driver (Ryan Gosling) that he used to produce B-movie genre films that the critics called “European…  I called them trash.”  That description fits the abyss that Drive attempts to jump, Dukes of Hazard/General Lee-style, between trash (the heist/thriller genre) and art cinema (particularly the existentially infused crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville).  Taking on a mode of filmmaking similar to both Michael Mann and Jean-Luc Godard, directors whose films cross-pollinate pulp narratives with a cool exploration of film form, Refn sticks the landing without the danger of a catastrophic rollover, taking cinephiles on a ride beyond their wildest imaginations. 

Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-Ray Review

On the evening of September 15th 2011, I left my apartment in West Los Angeles to camp out for the Blu-Ray release of all six Star Wars (1977-2005) films.  I hadn't stood in line for Star Wars since a cold day in April when, at age 16, I dressed warmly in a Green Bay Packers jacket and waited outside of the Northshore cinema in southeastern Wisconsin to buy tickets for The Phantom Menace (1999).  When that day in May finally came, I walked away from Phantom Menace - like many others - with disappointment.  I had moderate expectations for the Blu-Ray and clung to a childlike hope that my disappointment would be reversed by the high-definition glory of seeing three of my favorite films on my home theater.  Was my new hope redeemed or did I walk away poisoned with bitter anger?  Continue reading to find out! 

The Cinema Doctor Meets the Popcorn Mafia

Last week, I was invited by CNN's movie critic Grae Drake to sit down and discuss two horror films (Drive-In Horrorshow and The House That Dripped Blood) with Drive-In director Michael Neel.  


You can listen to our podcast here!  

Citizen Kane (1941): 70 Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition

I've been dreading the task of writing a review of Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941).  For years, I've avoided writing about it.  I've done so by favoring other Welles pictures when it comes to reviews (The Immortal Story, Touch of Evil) simply because the scholarship produced by André Bazin, Peter Bogdanovich, Pauline Kael, Laura Mulvey, James Naremore, and Jonathan Rosenbaum (amongst others!) leaves me with little to say.  It's a great film and far greater writers and thinkers than I have spent the past decades discovering its secrets and disclosing them to cinephiles and potential cinephiles.  That said, this review will be more focused on the features on the new 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-Ray than the film itself.  If you really want to learn about Citizen Kane, read one of those books.  If you know nothing about Kane and want a quick gloss, this is for you.  

Contagion (2011)

Contagion (2011) is much like Steven Soderbergh’s Academy award winning chronicle of the drug war Traffic (2000) except this one is about a deadly virus.  Soderbergh, acting once again as his own DP, still provides ice blue and warm yellow monochromatic shots of various plot threads focusing on a government bureaucracy that is - ideally – in a position to help but also has structures and protocols that get in the way.   Moreover, like Traffic, Contagion features an electronic score by frequent Soderbergh collaborator (and former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer) Cliff Martinez, slick editing by Stephen Mirrione, and another Vanity Fair Oscar Party of an ensemble cast.   The key difference between the former and the latter is characterization and unfortunately Contagion takes the form of its subject:  a detached, calculated, killer. 

The Rapture-In the Grace of Your Love (2011)

The Rapture's latest album, In the Grace of Your Love (2011), sounds like it may have been produced by a different band when played along side the dance-punk rockers "Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks" and "House of Jealous Lovers."  That's bound to upset fans of the band's blend of the Cure and the Talking Heads that was highlighted by their early EP and their beloved album Echoes (2003).  It may not be as shiny sounding as the Danger Mouse co-produced album Pieces of the People We Love (2006), but it puts the majority of it's emphasis on the dance side of the dance-punk equation, making it a worthy, albeit lesser, aural companion of DFA labelmate LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening (2010).  

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story (2011)

Writer Jeff Jensen (AKA Entertainment Weekly's Lost fanatic "Doc" Jensen) and artist Jonathan Case's Green River Killer:  A True Detective Story (2011) is the graphic novel equivalent of David Fincher's Zodiac (2007).  It is a tale of obsession, on behalf of both Jensen's father, Green River Killer Task Force Member Tom Jensen, and the Green River Killer (GRK) himself, Gary Leon Ridgway, the most deadly serial killer in American history (nearly fifty women were confirmed to have been killed by Ridgway).  It's chilling, gripping, and rises to the best levels of what sequential art can achieve.  

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosted an extraordinary program entitled "A Trip to the Moon in Color, and Other Travels Through Time, Color, and Space" the other night.  The program, hosted by Serge Bromberg (film historian and archivist) and Tom Burton (head of preservation at Technicolor) featured more than ten short films ranging from the San Francisco city symphony/actuality A Trip Down Market Street (1906) to early experiments in hand-colorization (Gwalior, 1907), sound (one of the first sound print shorts was shown), 3-D (Méliès had a camera that shot two lenses and negatives side by side for quick duplication, which actually created rudimentary 3-D prints), and Deco animation (Joy of Living, 1934).  The evening culminated with the screening of a restoration of a handcolored print of Méliès's famous A Trip to the Moon (1902).  

The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

Anthology films are often hit and miss.  Using 90 to 120 minutes to introduce new sets of characters and separate plots leaves a filmmaker - or filmmakers - with very little cinematic canvas to work with and, as a result, a miniscule margin for error.  To further complicate the construction, anthology films often utilize a framing plot to bridge the short films together, eating up further screen time to provide the narrative glue to a diverse set of stories that can, on occasion, embrace a wide range of aesthetic options.  Peter Duffell's The House that Dripped Blood (1971), a British horror anthology produced by Hammer rival Amicus Productions (who also produced anthologies based off of the EC Comics series Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror), is no exception to the hit and miss rule.  Yet, it comes in - for the most part - on the winning side of the equation. 

Fright Night (2011)

Tom Holland’s Fright Night (1985) is one of those films I’ve seen bits and pieces of on cable but I’ve never bothered to sit down and watch entirely.  After watching Craig Gillespie’s remake (2011), the cinematic equivalent to the contents of a pumpkin shaped trick or treat pail, I may need to remedy that blind spot.   Fright Night may not be F.W Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) or Guy Maddin’s Dracula:  Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002) when it comes to great vampire movies but it is, like Sam Raimi’s romp Drag Me to Hell (2009), a hell of a funny, scary time.