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SHADOWS (1959) directed by John Cassavetes is purely a film about people. People struggling as artists all of which are three siblings of African-American decent; Benny (Ben Carruthers), is a wandering beatnik, Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), the little sister trying to find her creative vein and Hugh (Hugh Hurd), the older brother who’s a jazz singer. The lives of these three intersect through problematic circumstances such as Hugh not getting the respected gigs he feels he deserves or Lelia feeling apprehensive of the path her love life has taken all hindered by the conflict of race and perhaps just bad luck.…
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** I forewarn you. I cannot say enough exciting things about this spellbinding film! ** NEAR DARK (1987) directed by Kathryn Bigelow is by far one of the best vampire movies I’ve ever seen and perhaps the best one ever made. With incredible special effects makeup surpassing the need for CGI tweaking and a cast assembled from James Cameron’s ALIEN what’s not to love about this new take on the vampire genre? I don’t even think the word “vampire” is even mentioned in the narrative. It all begins with the classic boy meets girl narrative but the exception…
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Night’s breath whispering upon my naked ears translating a sky of ecstasy I linger in the ethereal of ridicule and grace but my lips conceal a smile like the Mona Lisa. I have no memory of your words only feelings that lead me astray into a dismal panic attack of sputtering smoke from a crappy cigarette. Its just me and the moon now gliding our way down a dormant city street at 2am I cannot sleep it’s an illusion it has beaten me with a gnawing fatigue disguised of lonesome attributes a longing to be neither here nor there but…
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I’ve seen an array of exploitation films throughout the years and I have to confess this one was the most beautifully disastrous of train wrecks accumulated by the habitual components of blood, sex, violence, and nudity. TERMINAL ISLAND (1973) “Where we dump our human garbage” directed by female director Stephanie Rothman is a whale of a time accompanied by a soft inkling like undertone of feminism and a plethora of other social problems. I mean imagine going back to the cave dweller days except now there are knives, bombs, and guns and the survival of the fittest maintain their power…
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REMEDY (2013) was directed by Cheyenne Picardo which was inspired from her experiences as a pro-domme and pro-sub in an NYC dungeon. This low budget indie project has the feel of a documentary style narrative and when reading up on the film, a Sony PMW-EX3s camera was used on the project which is also commonly used on reality T.V. shows and documentaries. Peering into the world of a professional dominatrix and unmasking the realities that unfold is fairly spellbinding not in the sense of kinky sex fetishes but in the emotional toll that develops within Remedy our main protagonist…
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In ELVIS & NIXON (2016) directed by Liza Johnson and produced by Amazon Studios tells the story of the iconic picture and meeting that took place between the notable duo. The film is an hour and 25 minutes but could probably be cut down to 40-60 minutes as the heart and meat of the film is in the last 20 minutes where Elvis and Nixon actually meet and the rest is just built up around minor character’s trivial drama. This probably could have been better achieved as an actual theatrical play than movie as the story relies heavily on the…
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Can you imagine reliving the last year of your life through a series of events and moments within a minute of time? Sounds bizarre and unimaginable but that’s the beauty and mystery behind the concept of time and in Alain Resnais’s 1968 film JE T’AIME, JE T’AIME (I Love You, I Love You) It’s a choppy escapade where the main character (Claude Rich) travels throughout some strange, defining moments in his life paralleling a relationship with his former girlfriend. The pacing is like undergoing a bout of whiplash but following the narrative is half the fun. It’s like peeking into…
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Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 film SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE is about sex, lies, and videotape but in a moderately brainy context. There’s a dichotomy of two relationships at play, contrasting each other based on lies and honesty. The story revolves around four main characters married couple Ann (Andie MacDowell) and John (Peter Gallagher) along with Peter’s old time friend Graham (James Spader) and Ann’s sister Cynthia played by Laura San Giacomo. Consequently, John is having an affair with Cynthia which is the relationship based on lies and predominantly sex while Graham who’s impotent relies on recording women on videotape inquiring into…
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I was wandering around the internet late one night when I stumbled across a psychological mind bender called BUG (2006) and to my pleasant surprise learned it was directed by William Friedkin aka the director of THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and THE EXORCIST (1973). I was immediately sold. Now fasten your seat belts, put your thinking caps on this one is a jolt twister that might make your nose bleed. I might have blown that up a tad too much, nevertheless prepare yourself for a “WTF” moment. BUG takes places in a rundown Oklahoma town primarily in a shady, dusty…
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In all honesty Yorgos Lanthimos’s THE LOBSTER (2015) put a reserved smile on my face and I mean that in the best extraordinary way possible partly because I do have a morbid sense of humor. Nonetheless this film tickled my mind in strange ways, mostly because I put myself in David’s (Colin Farrell) shoes and if I equate my dating history into this bizarre story, I’d probably perish to being a lobster. Or in my case, the animal of my choosing would be a rhinoceros because they are majestic “almost” unicorn-like creatures. Rare by today’s standards. However, this absurd…
[Film Reviews from a Female Brain]
MARISSA THE CINEPHILE 