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I’ve admired Lon Chaney Jr. ever since watching the Wolf Man from 1941. He had such a presence and almost effortless ability to be charming, which still holds strongly in his role as Bruno in Jack Hill’s 1967 Spider Baby. I was damn-pleasantly surprised seeing him again channel a sense of warmth as the caretaker of three adult children of the Merrye family, who are all mentally ill with derangement due to a history of incest, sadly. They’re all living in a dilapidated mansion until one day a lawyer and distant relatives show up on the doorstep to claim what isn’t necessarily rightfully theirs but I…
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Carnival Of Souls is a hypnotic treat to digest. It was an overlooked film back in 1962 but its foreboding beauty seems to generate a long lasting impression for many cinephiles. It’s very iconic and special, considering it inspired George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Despite its low budget, minimal locations, small cast, it achieves a vision of mystery, darkness and horror, and it transcends its essence into what makes one want to become a filmmaker. As the story goes, Mary, played by Candace Hilligoss is a bit of a lost soul. She walks away from a car accident…
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I’ve been known to waffle back and forth in picking my favorite Cassavettes film, whether it’s Love Streams or Opening Night, for varying reasons, I seem to always land on Minnie and Moskowitz. It feels like his most personal film, showcasing an unconventional approach to storytelling, much of its dialogue resonates, and the highly skilled ability of both Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel improvising while filming is as refreshing as it is captivating. The heart of the story embraces love in all its imperfections, celebrating the flaws of the characters in their discombobulating whirlwind union, and from it blossoms into an honest portrayal of how crazy, …
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“There is no going back to normal.” – G.H. Scott I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the open ended complexity of Leave the World Behind. There are a plethora of rabbit holes to go down and draw on our own numerous conclusions and I feel like that’s what we need more of in cinema today. What’s excruciatingly terrifying is doesn’t it seem like we’re all kinda walking around acting like things are all going to be just fine but really doesn’t the world feel like that meme of the dog sitting at a table consumed in flames? Sam Esmail is an amazing filmmaker with very…
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“Power stays in the shadows.” OPPENHEIMER is a shockwave of deep introspective proportions. It facilitates an importance on curiosity but when such curiosity is soaked in irreversible consequences, the burden of its purpose collides with moral obstruction. Science will always be an inquisitive adventure, and I deeply admire how Christopher Nolan found a cinematic way to artistically and historically demonstrate it’s thought-provoking nature. But when you marry science with politics, it gets very hairy real fast. There’s a quote delivered by Robert Downey Jr’s character, the formidable and unforgiving Lewis Strauss, that terrifies me, because undoubtedly it is a dark…
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BRAINWASHED SEX-CAMERA-POWER is highly and densely perceptive on the dominance of the male gaze hindering the cinematic orbit of the entertainment industry. Perpetrated from a historical context to the present day where the evidence is much in continuance as it is commonplace. It’s so ingrained in the psyche of the zeitgeist, you generally have to evaluate how one assesses a film. BRAINWASHED is a documentary directed by filmmaker, Nina Menkes who draws from personal anecdotes, interviews, and evident observation over the film industry’s history of eliciting gender disparity in contemporary cinema. This disparity is a glaring fact critically aimed at…
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In an open letter written in February 2014, Dylan Farrow writes, “Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the surviors of sexual assault and abuse.” Challenging such a truth is, I am not a fan of Woody Allen and aside from ANNIE HALL, have not sought out to view his work. And yet, I’ve made a calculated choice to watch his 1988 film ANOTHER WOMAN. I do this for Gena Rowlands. Marion (Gena Rowlands), an accomplished woman who is on sabbatical from being dean of philosophy at a women’s college, is writing a book in…
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Oh this film implodes with fury and spite, and I somehow can’t get over the marshmallow hats. (slight spoiler, whoops) One man’s vengeance and platitude of being a highly skilled, prestigious chef of such a stellar reputation is lashing out from past traumas as some galvanizing quest in his magnum opus. This is illustrated later on in how he presents his one of a kind cuisine to a bunch of foodie extremists, who in the end ingest more than they bargain for. THE MENU, directed by Mark Mylod is a dark horror, comedy is a satire of how wealthy people…
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The Whale is viscerally dreadful. It’s an emotional journey between a tenderhearted, obese father (Brendan Fraser) and his estranged heavy-tempered daughter (Sadie Sink) that fades into a soul crushing calamity. There are these moments where love becomes a form of healing while simultaneously it tightens the noose around the neck of self destruction. Darren Aronofsky through his chosen imagery deliberately expresses Charlie’s fleshy body as a center point or better yet his apartment being voided of any natural light other than the front door, which reluctantly brings in a fractured support system of Charlie’s severely limited ecosystem, wherein a blatant…
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What really pisses me off about ROSEMARY’S BABY is this woman’s lack of instinct. Naivety strips her of any potential in kicking ass over her abusers. She’s trusting, loyal, submissive, accommodating of everyone’s needs before herself only to realize she’s a victim plagued by an unruly bunch of soulless creeps. What starts off as a seemingly “woman”s film, almost soap opera like (note the pink titles cards in the opening credits) slowly burns under the guise of a twisted narcissist, Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) and his sweet wife, Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) deciding to move into Bramford, a creepy gothic…
[Film Reviews from a Female Brain]
MARISSA THE CINEPHILE 